After being almost crushed to death by a 14,000-pound Snowcat in January 2023, actor and “The Avengers” star Jeremy Renner has released new details on the accident and his recovery in a new memoir.
According to People, Renner’s memoir “My Next Breath,” is due for release on April 29, in which Renner says was “emotionally cathartic” when he was writing it.
“Writing about it has been very emotionally cathartic to have to go word by word through it all again,” Renner told People in an interview. “I don’t not talk about it. It’s part of my life every day, and it’s always a wonderful reminder of the strength of the human spirit and how fragile the body is and how badass it is at recovery.”
Renner details his experience and the injuries that he endured, including more than 35 broken bones and how he saw “my left eye with my right eye” when his head was crushed against his driveway pavement.
“I’m not haunted by the incident — not too often anyway — by the images, the sounds,” Renner said. “But I am reminded of my new reality, and it’s wonderfully positive. I didn’t die.”
While trying to stop his Snowcat from crashing into his nephew Alex, who was 27 in 2022, Renner was ran over and severely injured.
“[Alex] read the book. Actually, we did listen to the book together, which was pretty intense, but we never really tried to push this under anything,” Renner said. “If I get better, then he’ll get better. I put images in that kid’s head he cannot unsee, so I’m going to do anything I can to get better. So, I’m healing him, he heals me. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Renner credits his daughter, Ava, who is now 12, for motivating his recovery and rehabilitation.
“It was a really wonderful gift to give my daughter to see how fallible I was, but also how we can overcome such obstacles. You can’t really teach a kid that except if it just happens to you,” Renner said. “She was my fuel to get better. I refused to give my daughter that fear or insecurity that I’m not going to be around. I’ve worked so hard in my life to ensure my daughter has a lot of fortitude and is not afraid of anything.”
Renner noted that his daughter was afraid in the aftermath of his accident but added that he encouraged her by asking her to help him.
“My daughter was scared and felt very helpless,” he told People, “So I gave her tasks to do. ‘You have to be my arms and be my legs. You have to help daddy now. You’ve got to do this and that, but I promise if you wait for me, I’ll get better.'”
