Jeremy Renner is afraid of having to work as an actor again after a snow plow accident

Jeremy Renner has spoken about how the thought of returning to acting after a near-fatal accident 18 months ago left him “terrified”, sharing that he is currently reluctant to take on new, challenging acting roles as he focuses on his physical and mental recovery.

“I just don’t have the energy for it. I don’t have the fuel,” Renner told moderators Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes in their Smartless Podcast during an episode released Monday. “I have so much energy to put into this reality, this body, all this stuff. I can’t just pretend right now. Because that takes a lot of time to get right here every day just so I can, you know, have a positive thought so I can make progress so I can keep growing.”

Renner, whose Paramount+ series Mayor of Kingstown currently airing its third season, broke more than 30 bones in his body in the accident on New Year’s Day 2023. While trying to clear heavy snow, he was run over by a 14,300-pound snowcat at his home in Reno, Nevada. Renner said his ribcage was reconstructed with metal, along with plates in his face to support his eye sockets and titanium rods in one of his legs.

Renner, who is also known for his role as Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and for his breakthrough role in Deadly Commando – The Hurt Lockertold the hosts that he was not ready for a new role because acting in a difficult role was simply not feasible for him.

“Because I’m supposed to do fiction, for god’s sake? I’m still trying to live in reality, I’m trying to live,” Renner said. “So it was a difficult line for me to cross. … It was a big challenge. It was a big, big challenge for me to get over that hurdle,” he said in response to Bateman’s comment that his job had become more and more artificial as his life became more real.

“I still struggle with it sometimes. … I don’t take it super seriously. I’m playing a role that I can play very well, and I know the show very well, so it was easy for me to slip back into it. But if it had been a very demanding role, I wouldn’t have been able to take it. Not challenging in that sense – because the show is demanding, but it would be like having to play (Jeffrey) Dahmer or something, something that is so far removed from me,” he said.

In the episode, the actor also revealed to listeners of the successful podcast that he is writing a book about his life over the past few years while he recovers physically and mentally from his brush with death.

“I’m going to spend the whole summer on it – hopefully I can have it out by the end of the year or early next year,” Renner said.