“They made me work too hard, too many hours, too many days in a row”

Jeremy Renner spoke to the LA Times about returning to the set of “Mayor of Kingstown” after his near-fatal snow plowing accident.

In January 2023, Renner was run over by his own snowcat, which weighs at least 6,400 kilograms, and suffered significant chest trauma – including a collapsed lung – and 38 broken bones.

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In the Paramount+ series Mayor of Kingstown, Renner plays Mike McLusky, a power broker in a fictional Michigan prison-focused town. He returned to the set in January of this year, a year after his accident.

Renner told the LA Times that during his first week back on the job, he sometimes fell asleep while filming a scene: “They said, ‘And action!’ And I was gone. We realized they were making me work too hard, too many hours, too many days in a row,” he said. “What I ready to do is everything, but what I am capable doing is something else.”

He said producers accommodated him by changing the filming schedule because jet lag was now putting a huge strain on his body. Instead of flying back and forth between California, Renner stayed in Pittsburgh for most of the four-month shoot.

“You must be treating me like I’m a child actor,” Renner joked. “The mayor of Kingstown is now like a 14-year-old.”

The actor’s snow plowing accident caused one of his eyes to bulge out of his skull. But Renner says the accident also had some unexpected benefits. He said he now has a photographic memory, which helps him memorize dialogue.

“The eyeball that came out of my head? I can see better with this eye than the other one,” Renner said. “I think I’m going bionic.”

Season 3 of “Mayor of Kingstown” is scheduled to be released on June 2 on Paramount+.

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