The movie star has been dogged by reports suggesting he's gay for years but he insists the rumours have never bothered him.

Renner tells Playboy magazine, "I just had a big laugh about it. 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... 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."

Renner's personal history suggests the actor is not gay - he was briefly married to model Sonni Pacheco and became a first-time father when his daughter, Ava Berlin, was born in March, 2013.