Jeremy Renner reflected on the year of recovery he’s had following his near-fatal snow plow accident, saying no one told him that he was “gonna get better.”
The 53-year-old actor recently talked about the life-threatening injuries he sustained on January 1, 2023, near his Nevada home, revealing, “Not one doctor, early on, said ‘You’re gonna pull through, you’re gonna be able to see again, you’re gonna be able to walk again, you’re gonna be able to breathe right, you’re gonna be able to talk,'” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“No one gave me anything,” he added. “I think they were all communicating with my family. And I feel like if they didn’t tell me it must have been pretty bleak.”
Jeremy Renner on how he’s doing after his snowplow accident: “A few days after the anniversary of the accident, my daughter and I were just looking at each other like: How far we’ve come. What a wonderful celebration” https://t.co/2cYqsZJsRY
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 7, 2024
The Marvel star said when he heard there would be limitations to his recovery, it only fueled him to get back on his feet. Renner has undergone extensive therapy for the last year after his body was nearly crushed under a 14,300-pound snowcat, resulting in more than 30 broken bones.
“I love that the doctor says, ‘this guy’s not gonna walk again, or if he does, it’ll be in two years and he’s gonna walk funny,'” Renner said. “I love when people say this. Even my own physical therapist is like, ‘You know what, you’re never gonna be able to run under a five-second 40,’ I’m like, ‘F*** you, it’s going to happen, I’m gonna do it in six months, watch this.'”
“I love when somebody tells me that — it’s just gonna give me more energy to do it and do it even better,” he added. “I already challenge myself anyway, and that’s also part of my recovery, as a competitor.”
At one point in the interview, he called the accident a “wonderful blessing.”
“Dying and coming back. I got that time out in life, I got to put pause on life, and go really live life,” Renner said. “And [I think], how can I give this to people? I think we had a little bit of it in COVID, right? There was a global epidemic going on but the silver lining in that is like we got to put pause on something, we got to stop and chill out, and ask what has value in our lives.”
“A little bit more extreme version of that is dying and coming back,” he added. “There’s a wonderful gift in that, if you can hang on that superpower of [realizing] what has real value in our lives.”
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He also discussed his promise to his young daughter, Ava, after the accident.
“Early on, I told her to wait for me, because she saw me busted up with 38 broken bones.”
“I said, ‘If you wait for me, I promise you I’ll get better,'” he added. “I had somebody to get better for — this little girl…”
Related: Jeremy Renner Gives Surprising Answer When Asked If He’s Changed Since Near-Fatal Snow Plow Accident