AT 8 YEARS OLD, Jeremy Renner walked alone to and from his Modesto, Calif., school, letting himself into his house each afternoon with the key hanging from a nylon string around his neck. Free to do what he liked, he built forts, shot bottle rockets and figured many things out for himself.
“I had a lot of free time to sort of raise myself,” Mr. Renner, now 47, said. “I was a doer. I was very actionable. And I think in doing that it was the beginning of just trying and failing and overcoming.”
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