For the first time, Jeremy Renner is showing off his scars from the snow plow accident that nearly took his life.
Renner, 53, appears shirtless on the cover of the July/August 2024 edition of Men’s Health, displaying a long scar along the right of his back and smaller marks on his chest.
As a result of the January 2023 accident — in which the actor was crushed by a PistenBully, a snow-removal vehicle weighing over 14,330 pounds, near his Nevada home while clearing snow with his nephew — Renner suffered more than 38 broken bones, including six broken ribs in 14 places, a broken tibia and a collapsed lung.
“I remember every undulation,” he said of the accident. “I remember my head cracking on the thing and it just pressing on me — it’s exactly like you think it would feel. An immovable object and a crushing force, and something’s gotta give. But thank God my skull didn’t fully give.”
Renner said he was “screaming for a breath” as things began swirling around him.
“The first five minutes were about how I’m going to breathe,” he said. “Then after maybe 10 minutes, my neighbors are there, they called 911, and I got my nephew to hold my arm in a position where … because apparently my ribs are jabbing me and poking my lung. Mind you, my leg was twisted up like a pretzel — didn’t feel that s–t!”
The Avengers star was eventually airlifted to the hospital and spent a lengthy time in the ICU, which was an experience he did not recall fondly.
“What a f–king disaster, dude,” Renner said. “Showering, going to the bathroom — everything was a disaster. They give you medications so you don’t go to the bathroom, so you get constipated. And you pee in a jar. It was awful. That’s when you know things aren’t going great — you’re peeing in a plastic jug.”
Renner recalled it would take him 17 minutes just to “get out of bed” and the process of taking a shower took “half a day.”
“I couldn’t get stuff wet,” he explained. “Your hair gets super greasy and gross and you stink, but I had all these staples I couldn’t wet, and I wasn’t going to fucking risk infection. So I had sponge baths.”
Slowly but surely, Renner began to recover with the help of doctors and trainers. During that arduous journey, he began to find power in the small victories.
“People ask how. How do you do this?” he said. “You just put in the work, man. Love yourself. Be confident in yourself. How do you find confidence? You take one step, then you take another step, and then guess what, Hot Sauce? You’re walking! You know what I mean?”
He continued, “You breathe out, then you breathe in, then you breathe out. Well now you’re breathing!”
Renner — who has previously credited his 11-year-old daughter Ava with keeping him motivated throughout his recovery — made his return to acting in Mayor of Kingstown season 3, which recently premiered on Paramount+. New episodes stream every Sunday.
