Jeremy Renner’s First Interview Shows What Happens When You’re Run Over by a Snowplow

On January 1, 2023, Jeremy Renner was crushed by his snowplow, a 7-ton PistenBully snowcat he had taken out to clear the roads near his Reno, Nevada property after heavy snowfall. As reported at the time, his nephew was stuck in his car on the road, and Renner had driven up to clear a path for him.

At one point, Renner got out of the snowplow and went over to his nephew’s car to get him out, and the PistenBully started rolling downwards. In his first interview since that near-fatal day, Renner says that the snowplow was actually rolling toward the trapped nephew.

Renner tried to get back into the cab of the PistenBully and, as he stepped on the moving tracks, he was pulled down and under, with the machine rolling over him. The injuries he sustained were gruesome, requiring many hours of surgery and months of recovery. He’s not there yet to making a full recovery, but he’s well enough to revisit the day in which he almost lost his life.

He does just that in an extended interview with TV veteran Diane Sawyer, called Jeremy Renner: The Diane Sawyer Interview – A Story of Terror, Survival and Triumph, and scheduled to premiere on ABC at 10 p.m. ET/PT on April 6. Mark the date and have some hankies nearby, because it’ll be a tearjerker.

The decision to do the interview now is no coincidence: days later, Renner is scheduled to walk the red carpet at the Disney+ premiere of his car show Rennervations. The 4-part series sees him lead a team of fabricators and celebrity friends, converting decommissioned large vehicles for use within certain communities.

A trailer for the interview is included in the video at the bottom of the page, but try to look past the overly dramatic editing, and you’re bound to be impressed by the heartwarming story. This is the first time that Renner details the extent of the injuries he sustained as the snowplow rolled over him: 30+ broken bones, some of them in multiple places, and him being “awake through all of it.”

Renner says he’d “do it again,” meaning risk his own life so he could save his nephew’s, and he becomes overwhelmed and teary-eyed when he recalls apologizing to his family from his hospital bed, through sign language, because he thought he might not make it. His is a classic story of a phoenix rising from the ashes, the tale of the hero crushed by adversity – literally, in his case – but made only stronger because he refused to let it kill him. The difference is, of course, that this is real life. It beats any Marvel production, if only because of that.

“I've lost a lot of flesh and bone in this experience, but I've been refueled and refilled with love and titanium,” Renner says. Sort of like Wolverine, but in real life.