Jeremy Renner Shares Emotional New Comments on His Near-Fatal Accidentoriginally appeared onParade. HollywoodA-lister Jeremy Renneris a new person two and a half years after he wasrun over by his own snowplowon New Year's Day, 2023. Once a "grumpy" man who was "dissatisfied" with life, the 54-year-old now insists "it's an honor to be alive." "I'd do it again in two seconds," he toldThe Guardianon July 12, 2025, of his split-second choice to try to jump into the plow to stop it from hitting his nephew, regardless of whether the move was necessary in hindsight. "There was no way I was going to take that risk and see my nephew's head on the ground cut in half." Instead, he took the brunt of the trauma himself. TheMission: Impossiblestar emotionally recalled the harrowing experience of being crushed under the 7-ton piece of machinery in his new book,My Last Breath. "There came terrible crunching sounds as 14,000lb of galvanised steel machinery slowly, inexorably, monotonously, ground over my body," he wrote. "Skull, jaw, cheekbones, molars; fibula, tibia, lungs, eye sockets, cranium, pelvis, ulna, legs, arms, skin; crack, snap, crack, squeeze, crack." View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jeremy Renner (@jeremyrenner) While friends, family, and paramedics didn't expect him to even survive, he is surprisingly whole these days. "I have a bunch of little scars, but only from the surgery to save my body," he told the outlet. "The whole leg is titanium from the knee down to the ankle." As a star who famously did his own stunts, he admits that "in his mind" there's nothing he can't do now, though his body would probably disagree. "I'm also 54. But my mind still thinks I'm 20," he said. One thing that's still bothering him a lot is his teeth. "My mouth is still complete chaos," he said. "It looks fine, but when I bite down, it feels as if I'm going to break all my teeth." Despite the discomfort, he has a totally new lease on life. While he struggled with being a celebrity before, he appreciates the new connection the accident has given him with fans. "There's a beautiful intimacy and openness and vulnerability and kindness and thoughtfulness I get from people now, instead of just taking their deserved selfie," he shared. "It's a different human exchange. I think it's given them a pathway. They feel, 'He's a human just like I am.'" View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jeremy Renner (@jeremyrenner) While Renner was once "dissatisfied with a lot of things in my life" because he felt like he needed to give so much to fans and work, he now has a new outlook. "The accident's really shifted my focus," he said. "I can still go to work, but my primary focus is to give back and help in any way I can. That's way more fulfilling than anything else I've done, outside bringing up my own child." He says that he's no longer a "recluse" and that the accident "forced" him to "get out of my own way." "I've never been more connected and more open and more vulnerable and more loving. And I've never received more goodwill," he said. "That connection was buried deep, deep, deep in my soul, beforehand, but now it's at the forefront. It's all that matters to me." Jeremy Renner Shares Emotional New Comments on His Near-Fatal Accidentfirst appeared on Parade on Jul 12, 2025 This story was originally reported byParadeon Jul 12, 2025, where it first appeared.
