Avengers star Jeremy Renner spoke publicly for the first time about his accident, which occurred in January, during an interview with US network ABC on Thursday. Renner broke more than 30 bones when he attempted to prevent his snowplough from running over his nephew on New Year’s Day.
During the interview, Renner took full responsibility for the accident, stating “You shouldn’t be outside the vehicle when you’re operating it, you know what I mean? It’s like driving a car with one foot out of the car.” He further stated that the accident was his mistake and he paid for it.
Renner, who is best known for playing Marvel’s Hawkeye and has been nominated for two Oscars, revealed that he and his nephew Alex, 27, had been using the 6.5-tonne vehicle to move one of the family’s trucks out of the snow. When the snowplough started skidding on the ice, Renner said he put a foot out of the cab to check whether Alex was in its way, without setting the parking brake. However, he lost his footing and fell out.
In an attempt to prevent the snowplough from running over his nephew, Renner tried to jump back in. But he stepped onto the plough’s moving wheel tracks, which threw him forward, and the vehicle ran over him. Renner described his thoughts at the time, “I said, ‘Oh, that [leg], that one’s really messed up… that leg’s [going to] be a problem. [I’m thinking], what’s my body [going to] look like? Am I just gonna be like a spine and a brain like a science experiment?”
After three months of intense treatment, Renner was seen in the ABC program being able to walk with the aid of a frame. Renner revealed that he gestured to his family to say he was sorry when he woke up in the hospital. “I felt bad that my actions had caused so much pain”, he said.
Renner shared that hearing his family’s perspectives and memories of the accident is “horrifying,” but he has no regrets and “would do it again.” Renner refused to be “haunted by that memory in any way” and refused to let it be a trauma or negative experience. “That is a man I’m proud of because I wouldn’t let that happen to my nephew,” Renner said.
Renner’s credits include The Hurt Locker, Arrival, The Bourne Legacy, and two Mission: Impossible movies, as well as the TV series Mayor of Kingstown.
