Jeremy Renner is revealing what writing a memoir about his near-death snowplow accident in January 2023 taught him about himself.
On Tuesday, April 29, Renner, 54, appeared on CBS Mornings to promote his new book My Next Breath, where he addressed his author’s note, in which he expresses how he “did not want to write this book” and relive the horrifying incident.
“I had written most of the book at that point. But I really wanted to voice why I didn’t want to write it, because I just didn’t think it was valuable,” Renner said. “I lived it. It was a private incident that happened in my driveway. Why does anybody care about it?”
“But the act of writing it is — what I want people to take away from the book [is] getting out of your own way is quite important to achieve and get anything you want in your life, and that’s the lesson that I had to learn to get of my own way and share the story because I knew it was valuable,” he added. “It would be silly of me not to share it.”
Renner, a two-time Oscar nominee best known for his role as Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, broke dozens of bones and was left in critical condition after he was struck and crushed by a seven-ton snowplow at his home near Reno, Nevada, on New Year’s Day in 2023. The actor had tried to leap into the vehicle when it accidentally began rolling toward his nephew, but was instead crushed by its tracks. In addition to more than 30 broken bones, Renner also suffered a collapsed lung and lacerated liver, among other life-threatening blunt chest trauma injuries.
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Jeremy Renner on Dec. 9, 2024
The actor and his family have documented much of his recovery over the last two-plus years. “Well, that’s why I didn’t want to write the book,” Renner said with a laugh, when CBS Mornings asked him to give “a sense” of what he experienced as the incident occurred. As his memoir’s title implies, Renner found solace by focusing on his breath, both in the 45 minutes it took for him to receive emergency help and in the years of recovery since the accident.
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“So that part just saved me: zooming out, focusing on just breathing. Because if I wasn’t going to breathe, it didn’t matter that my eyeball is out of my head, my legs were all twisted up like a pretzel,” he said. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll worry about that later. You’ve gotta breathe first. If you don’t, I’m passing out and then my body’s not going to breathe, organ failure and then I’m dead.”
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Jeremy Renner on June 8, 2024
While speaking with PEOPLE recently about his new book — and his mindset in the years since the accident — Renner explained why he feels he “can’t have a bad day” anymore.
“There’s lots of reminders what new reality is, and it’s kind of great because that new reality is still wonderfully positive. I didn’t f—— die, or all the way, anyway,” he said. “And so my swollen ankles or whatever, my back that keeps going out or my jaw that just can’t seem to bite down right, it’s a great reminder of an attitude that got me to here in the first place. It’s f—— awesome.”
My Next Breath is available wherever books are sold now.
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