Jeremy Renner is content to have a stuntman do any future dangerous Marvel feats. The 52-year-old actor sat down with Diane Sawyer on Thursday night for an ABC interview, where he spoke candidly about his near-fatal snowcat accident on New Year’s Day, in which he suffered 30 or more fractured bones and needed chest surgery.
Renner, who previously did many of his MCU stunts on his own, said he is “OK” with handing over control to a stuntman while he recovers and returns to the set.
For the time being, “I’m OK with a stunt guy doing it,” Renner said candidly. “I’m 52. In any case, it’s fine. That’s all I can do for now. So, it’s fine if I do more, right? I, however, am OK. I don’t put myself first. Sure, do it. Indifferent, here.
I’ll be in my trailer,” he joked.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Renner spoke at length about the trauma he endured after an accident that left him in severe condition and needing to be evacuated to the hospital.
Renner now uses a cane to get around, but he still has occasional flashes of pain from the lengthy operation that left him filled with screws, metal plates, and even rubber bands, according to a video shared with ABC.
I’m also having to relearn things,” he told Sawyer. Now that I have a fractured jaw, I have to relearn how to talk.
Renner admitted that the accident still “triggers” him and causes him to recall “all of” the painful details.
I was alert the whole time,” he assured Sawyer.
Renner’s nephew Alexander Fries, whom the actor was attempting to help when Fries’ car became trapped in the snow, was also interviewed by the ABC News anchor. After the events of the tragedy transpired, Fries informed Sawyer that he rushed up to Renner, fearing for his uncle’s life.
Sawyer recounts Renner’s significant injuries, including eight broken ribs in 14 places, a fractured right knee and ankle, a shattered left leg, tibia, and left ankle, and a damaged right shoulder, in one of the more dramatic scenes.
Face, eye socket, jaw, mandible fractured; lung collapsed; rib bone penetrated; liver. Scary, indeed,” she said.
Renner shared his thoughts about his will to live. This is not going to kill me,” he declared.
Renner’s tremendous will to survive the terrible tragedy didn’t prevent him from preparing for the worse. He informed Sawyer that he started drafting his farewell letters to his loved ones while fighting back tears.
Renner stated between sobs, “So, I’m writing down notes on my phone.” “Family, these are my final words.”
Renner was killed on New Year’s Day near his house in the Mt. Rose Highway neighborhood of Reno, Nevada. Renner can be heard moaning in pain as his neighbor places a 911 call to the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office and tries his best to explain the situation, assuring the injured actor that aid is on the way.
After explaining that Renner had been crushed by the snowcat, the neighbor responded, “He is in rough shape.” We need someone with basic first aid skills to arrive ASAP.
He was “crushed up on his right side, yeah, his right chest and upper torso,” the neighbor said further during the conversation. It appears as though several of his ribs have been smashed. He’s also been injured in the head.
ET has received a redacted incident report from the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office which states that Renner towed his nephew’s vehicle after it became trapped in the snow. Renner was trying to shield his nephew from the snowplow’s blades as it started to move.
He told authorities that the issue began when his snowcat, a PistenBully, began “sliding sideways” and then “began to roll down the hill,” prompting him to get off. Unfortunately, his nephew was in harm’s way.
The report stated, “Once he got off the PistenBully, he saw that it was heading straight toward (his nephew).” He was worried that the PistenBully would hurt his nephew, so he tried to halt or deflect it. Renner then tried to jump onto the moving track in order to reach the snow groomer’s cab, but he was “immediately pulled under the left side track.”
A PistenBully “rolled over him and continued down the road,” as the report put it. While his nephew and others helped him until emergency medical services came, “he laid on the ground and concentrated on his breathing.”
On his 52nd birthday, Renner thanked his fans and loved ones for their support from his hospital bed.
The Hawkeye star insisted that he would go through it all again if it meant he could save his nephew.
I don’t feel any remorse. He then shocked Sawyer by saying, “I would do it again.” I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I refuse to let it ruin my life or cause me trauma. Just because I wouldn’t want something bad to happen to my nephew doesn’t mean I’m proud of it.
Renner said, “‘Cause I change the story of being a victim or an idiot. I won’t let myself be f**king tormented by that thought.
