Chinese filmmaker Yi Zhou has accused Marvel actor Jeremy Renner of angry outbursts, sustained harassment, and threatening to call ICE to have her deported.
Zhou, 37, made the claims in a series of Instagram posts, and she elaborated in an interview with The Daily Mail. According to her, the pair began dating this past July after he sent her unsolicited dick pics and expressed an interest in her filmmaking. Renner worked on two of her movies, an animated film as well as a documentary, Chronicles of Disney.
As she explained to The Daily Mail, she had gone to Renner’s home in Reno to work on the documentary when he became violent. “I was discussing about the doc logistics, then he drank a bottle of wine alone and got angry and angry yelling for two hours,” she said. “I had to location share to my team, my parents and Disney colleagues in case something happens to me they know where I am. I had to lock myself in a room to be safe praying he would not come into the room at night as he was really angry. I did not say a word, I was so scared for my life.”
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Zhou also shared text messages with The Daily Mailthat appear to corroborate her story, including messages she allegedly sent from inside the locked bathroom in which she told a friend he was “violent” and that she was afraid for her safety.
In another post, Zhou said, “When I called him out privately about his past misconduct and asked him to behave properly, to respect me as a woman and as a filmmaker, he threatened to call immigration/ICE on me, an act that deeply shocked and frightened me.”
She also showed a partial record of text messages with the Mail, in which Renner reportedly texted her, “Immigration will be informed about your—” with the rest of the message censored.
In a post titled “DOMESTIC VIOLENCE” Zhou wrote, “When I read the past allegations of his ex wife, I did not believe them. After experiencing in first person, and having had the fear for my life, I managed to endure thx to my team and my friend’s at Disney’s support.”
Renner’s ex-wife, Sonni Pacheco, divorced him in 2014. She accused the Hawkeye actor in court documents of threatening to kill her and himself. She also claimed he had a drug problem and had left cocaine around their home within arm’s reach of their then-infant daughter.
Renner denied Pacheco’s allegations and has yet to comment on Zhou’s claims.