Jeremy Renner Is A True Hero Reflecting On Grim Snowplow Accident: 'I'd Do It Again'
Fans are used to seeing film and television star Jeremy Renner spring into action to save the day as Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But offscreen, the two-time Oscar nominee has shown an equal amount of bravery — and it nearly cost him his life.
Renner was critically injured in a snowplow accident on New Year's Day 2023 when he was run over by the Sno-Cat PistenBully he was using to clear the area around his home near Reno, Nevada. As details of the incident were made public, it was revealed that Renner, who was in the 14,000-pound machine as it started sliding, leaped out of the vehicle in order to prevent it from hitting his nephew, who was in its path. As a result, Renner was pulled under the snowplow and was crushed, sustaining 30 broken bones in the process.
In the trailer for his first sit-down interview since the accident, Renner told ABC journalist Diane Sawyer that if presented with the same circumstances again, he would not hesitate to put himself in harm's way. "I'd do it again ... Yeah, I'd do it again, because it was going right at my nephew," Renner said in the hour-long ABC News special "Jeremy Renner: The Diane Sawyer Interview — A Story of Terror, Survival and Triumph."
Renner's interview will detail his incredible recovery
The Jeremy Renner interview special with Diane Sawyer, which is scheduled to air Thursday, April 6 on ABC, also includes a look at his physical rehabilitation. It will feature audio from the 911 call after the accident, as well as interviews with first responders and members of the actor's family, including the nephew he saved in the accident. "I just perfectly see him in a pool of blood from his head. I ran up to him. I didn't think he was alive," Renner's nephew told Sawyer in the trailer.
In the 911 audio, a voice of a person at the scene of the accident can be heard in the call to authorities, telling the actor, "Keep breathing. Keep fighting." Fighting appears to be part of Renner's mantra moving forward, as he told Sawyer, "I chose to survive. You're not going to kill me. No way."
Renner also discussed with Sawyer his future as an actor, as well as a possible return to the stunt work that goes with it. The actor most recently starred in the second season of the Paramount+ crime drama "Mayor of Kingstown."
"I've lost a lot of flesh and blood in this experience, but I've been refueled and refilled with love and titanium," Renner told Sawyer.