Jeremy Renner was recently accused of threatening to call ICE on director Yi Zhou after pursuing her romantically, and now the filmmaker has shared some other details about their alleged relationship.
While speaking to TMZ in Beverly Hills on Tuesday (November 11), Zhou said she was "happy" to speak out about the drama surrounding the 54-year-old actor. However, Zhou insists she thought they were dating.
"I thought it was love — maybe true love, maybe growing love, but it seems that he thinks otherwise and it's OK. Opinions are subjective, right?" the 38-year-old filmmaker said.
When asked about Zhou’s claim that Renner had once threatened to call ICE on her, she told TMZ: "Of course it's difficult because you don't want to be threatened and everything, especially by your significant other, at least, I believe he was my significant other."
Zhou also said she decided to speak out not for attention or money but to encourage other women to do the same.
"As women, it's OK to voice your opinion under the First Amendment. It's OK to share if you feel uncomfortable, if you feel frightened sometimes, if you feel disappointed like I have been," she noted, adding: "I just want women to feel safe, to be able to speak up and to say what they went through."
She previously told the Daily Mail that Renner pursued her and sent her intimate photos and videos in an effort to woo her. However, Zhou said she still believes he has redeeming qualities.
"I think it's a good side of him, and I hope he can develop more that side of him," she said. "But he needs to put in work and most of all have respect for women and to dignify us because we're not objects."
In response to the Zhou's claims, a representative for Renner told Variety: "The allegations being made are totally inaccurate and untrue."
Renner’s attorney, Marty Singer, sent Zhou a cease-and-desist letter on Friday (November 7) demanding that she stop making defamatory comments about him.
Renner was previously reported to be starring in Zhou’s animation project, Stardust Futures: Stars and Scars, which was described by Variety as the first feature-length film created entirely with artificial intelligence. TMZ reported that Renner sent Zhou a cease-and-desist letter of his own, accusing her of using his voice without permission.
Zhou didn't address the animation dispute in her TMZ interview, but she did thank Singer for being a "peacemaker" and said she hopes to "work towards a peaceful resolution."
Through a statement from his representatives, Renner described their involvement as a "brief consensual encounter" in July, after he sat for an interview for her documentary at a hotel in Reno, Nevada.
According to him, Zhou had been pursuing a "sexual/romantic/sexting relationship" with the actor via social media and supposedly made physical advances after the interview. After they met again in August, Renner has alleged he made it clear he wasn't interested in a sexual relationship.
"I just think it's the reverse playbook when they feel accused. It's a template they share to say the female actually was there, but I think it works if it was in the past, you know, when people didn't have social media," Zhou said. "So it was, 'he said, she said,' and nobody can prove it. Now we live in a world where it's all digitalized."