Jeremy Renner opened up about his near-fatal snowplow accident during an interview that aired Thursday, saying that at one point, he told his family not to let him “live on tubes on a machine.”
The 52-year-old Marvel star sat down with ABC’s Diane Sawyer and detailed what he went through after his body was nearly crushed under a 14,300-pound snowcat, resulting in him breaking more than 30 bones, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The “Hawkeye” star said that he feared that his life was over after the accident and asked his family to keep his daughter from seeing him. He also told them he didn’t want to be kept alive on machines.
“Don’t let me live on tubes on a machine,” Renner said of a conversation with his family. “If my existence is going to be on drugs and painkillers, let me go now.”
WATCH:
At one point, Renner told Sawyer that he surely would’ve died if he had been alone, explaining that he lost “a lot of flesh and bone” in the accident.
“If I was there on my own, that would have been a horrible way to die, and surely I would have. Surely,” Renner said. “Surely, but I wasn’t alone. I was with my nephew, sweet Alex.”
He later explained that despite the accident, he refuses to let the “trauma” he experienced be defined as a “negative experience.”
“That is a moment I’m proud of because I wouldn’t let that happen to my nephew,” Renner said. “I shift the narrative of being victimized or making a mistake or anything else. I refused to be f***ing haunted by that memory that way.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP
On January 1, “The Bourne Legacy” star was helping get his nephew’s truck out of the snow when the Kässbohrer PistenBully snowcat he was operating ran over him, the New York Post noted.
“He was helping someone stranded in the snow,” Reno City Mayor Hillary Schieve told the Reno-Gazette Journal at the time. “He is always helping others.”
Since that time, Renner has shared videos and posts on Instagram about some of his recovery and the physical therapy he’s been through following the accident.
Related: ‘Hawkeye’ Star Wrote His ‘Last Words’ To Family In The Hospital Just In Case