Jeremy Renner denies sending unsolicited nudes, ICE threat to director

Jeremy Renner is denying serious accusations from a filmmaker who says she had a relationship with him. 

After director Yi Zhou publicly accused the Hurt Locker star of sending her unsolicited nude images of himself and threatening to call ICE on her, Renner’s lawyer, Martin Singer, dismissed the allegations in a statement to PEOPLE, calling them “false, outrageous, and highly defamatory.”

“The true facts are that Ms. Zhou has relentlessly and aggressively harassed and pursued my client for months with no reciprocation on my client’s part, other than a single brief encounter on July 12, 2025,” Singer told the outlet on Friday.

Singer claimed that Renner and Zhou shared a “brief consensual encounter” in Reno in July and that they met again a month later after the actor ignored “sexually explicit messages expressing her love” for him.

When asked to comment on Singer’s statement, a representative for Zhou responded with an Instagram post in which the director described her alleged professional and personal history with Renner.

The post claims that she collaborated with the Mayor of Kingstown actor on her project Masters of Cinema: Chronicles of Disney — a documentary about the Walt Disney Company that was released in October — which she called “a pro bono collaboration developed to benefit charitable foundations, including Mr. Renner’s own.”

The filmmaker added that she and Renner “developed a personal connection beginning in mid-2025,” which manifested as a “long-distance” relationship that she previously described as “love” because “I consider that term the most respectful and dignified for both of us.”

Zhou said Renner allegedly sent “unsolicited intimate photos and messages that were uninvited and inappropriate” and that “the first physical encounter was not consensual,” though later encounters were consensual.

She also claimed that after “continued unwanted sexual content and increasing online harassment by associated fan accounts,” she opted to issue a cease-and-desist letter to Renner, which she shared in a separate post, showing a letter dated Nov. 5 that demanded that Renner “cease threatening, intimidating, and disrespectful conduct.”

The filmmaker said her “intention” when speaking out is “not retaliation but transparency.” She added, “I have the right to protect my professional reputation, to set boundaries, and to correct misinformation when selective reporting distorts the facts.”

In her original accusations on Instagram earlier this week, Zhou claimed that the Hawkeye actor contacted her directly in June and sent “unwanted/unsolicited pornographic images of himself via DM and [WhatsApp].” She also claimed that Renner’s refusal to promote their documentary has led fans to claim that he was not actually involved in the project, and that his likeness was generated with AI to mislead viewers.

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Zhou then claimed that she called Renner out privately “about his past misconduct and asked him to behave properly, to respect me as a woman and as a filmmaker” but that Renner threatened to call ICE on her, which she said “deeply shocked and frightened” her.

She added, “Such behavior is unacceptable and emblematic of the imbalance of power that continues to harm women in our industry.”

In subsequent posts, Zhou accused Renner of “domestic aggressions,” shared photos that she claimed were from Renner’s “everyday life,” suggested that he “set up” a “smear campaign” against her documentary, shared multiple screenshots from alleged conversations she had with Renner, and alleged that the actor has demonstrated a “pattern” of similar behavior with other women. 

A representative for Renner did not respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s requests for comment about the initial accusations or about Zhou’s response to Singer’s statement.