Jeremy Renner revealed in his recently-published memoir, “My Next Breath,” that he briefly experienced what he believes was death during the 2023 New Year’s Day snow plow accident that nearly cost him his life. In a recent follow-up interview on Kelly Ripa’s “Let’s Talk Off Camera” podcast, the Oscar nominee described this moment as “a great relief.”
“It’s a wonderful, wonderful relief to be removed from your body,” Renner said. “It is the most exhilarating peace you could ever feel. You don’t see anything but what’s in your mind’s eye. Like, you’re the atoms of who you are, the DNA, your spirit. It’s the highest adrenaline rush, but the peace that comes with it… it’s magnificent. It’s so magical.”
“I didn’t want to come back,” Renner continued. “I remember I was brought back and I was so pissed off. I came back, I’m like, ‘Aww!’ I came back and saw [my] eyeball and I’m like, ‘Oh shit, I’m back.’ Saw my legs. I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s gonna hurt later.’ I’m like, ‘All right, let me continue to breathe.’”
Renner wrote in his book that he briefly died about 30 minutes after his Sno-Cat, a large snow plow that weighs at least 14,330 pounds, ran him over on Jan. 1, 2023. Renner ultimately regained consciousness and was hospitalized for blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries. His injuries included eight ribs broken in 14 places, a broken right knee and ankle, a broken left leg tibia and ankle, a broken right clavicle and shoulder and more.
“I could see my lifetime,” he writes in the book. “I could see everything all at once. In death, there was no time, no time at all, yet it was also all time and forever.”
Speaking to Ripa, Renner added that feeling like “a man that didn’t want to come back” has made him now “really be able to be back here and live it on my terms as the captain of my own ship. And get on it or off it, I don’t give a fuck. I’m going to live life on my own terms and for nobody else. [It’s] very clear. The white noise is ripped away.”
After spending nearly a year in recovery, Renner has since gone on to return to acting via his Paramount+ original drama series “Mayor of Kingstown.” He also filmed a role in Rian Johnson’s next “Knives Out” movie, “Wake Up Dead Man,” which is coming to theaters and Netflix this fall.
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From Variety US