Jeremy Renner has been the focus of gay rumors since he first came on the scene in Dahmer. The gossip only increased when he divorced Sonni Pacheco after just 10 months (The two share custody of 2-year-old daughter, Ava.)

But as the Avengers star tells Playboy in a new interview, he really doesn't care what people think about his sexuality.

"When you google yourself and the first thing that comes up is ‘Jeremy Renner gay,’ it’s like, ‘Oh, now you’ve arrived. You’re now a giant movie star.’ I don’t care, ultimately, if that’s what people want to think, read and care about. F**king say whatever the hell you want about me.

Look at where we’re at socially—leaps and bounds ahead of where we started. That’s an amazing thing. To suggest that it’s negative, that being gay is a terrible thing, a perversion or whatever—I just don’t get it. Don’t you wish we were in a world where we’re not shaming, judging and boxing people in?”

[caption id="attachment_209882" align="alignnone" width="549"] Photo: Playboy[/caption]

Renner did shed some light on his first time with a woman, calling it "awful, just like everybody else’s."

He admits he has no idea what she thinks of their encounter. "Maybe she goes to the movies and thinks, Okay, Hawkeye was my first. Or she could have a voodoo doll of me, for all I know.”

Sounds like a great idea for a super-villainess in the next Avengers.

h/t: Just Jared