Jeremy Renner headed back to work a year after near-fatal accident

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A year after he was nearly killed in a horrific New Year’s Day accident, Jeremy Renner is ready to head back to work on his Paramount+ series The Mayor of Kingstown.

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“It’s been a really wonderful, wonderfully busy year, and I think I’m ready,” he said of returning for season three of the show during an interview on CNN’s New Year’s Eve coverage Sunday night. “I think I’m strong enough. We’ll see. I mean, I literally go back in a week. But I’ll be doing my best, trying my hardest.”

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Renner, 52, was gravely injured in a New Year’s Day accident on Jan. 1, 2023, after he was crushed under a 14,000-pound snowplow.

In a report obtained by CNN, Renner’s PistenBully snow groomer “started sliding sideways” when he attempted to pull his nephew’s stuck truck out of snow.

Renner ended up crushed underneath the slowplow and suffered 30 broken bones and a collapsed lung.

“I got lucky in a lot of ways. I’m happy to be here,” Renner told late-night host Jimmy Kimmel in April, who introduced the two-time Oscar nominee by saying he beat “Thanos, Loki and a 14,000-pound slowplow.”

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In his conversation with Kimmel, Renner said rescuers “jammed some sort of emergency knife” into his chest to save his life.

Along with his return to acting, Renner is also set to release a new album inspired by his harrowing ordeal later this month.

“Music has always been pretty cathartic and healing for me regardless anyway,” Renner told CNN hosts Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper of the record, called Love and Titanium. “This is more of a narrative of life and death and the recovery of all last year. So it’s more of a journal entry so that the music crosses a lot of different genres.”

Renner said he contemplated making music last summer as he recuperated from his ordeal.

“It was wonderfully healing, I think for even the people I wrote it with, who are all my friends … the better I got, the better everybody else got. So the music became also a narrative of that,” he said.

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Renner, who was celebrated the New Year in Reno, Nevada, with his family, told the pair he was feeling “blessed” to have a second chance with life.

“I’m just so blessed that I have so many things to live for. I have a giant family and a 10-year-old daughter,” he said. “I would have disappointed and really messed up a lot of people’s lives if I had passed. So there’s a lot for me to get better for. I’m also pretty stubborn and there’s a lot for me to fight for.”

The Marvel star said that his recovery was something that could provide “relief” to his family.

“My recovery became relief for me, because I knew I could give relief to my family, my daughter and all those that I really affected. And my poor nephew, who was there with me on that day, I gave him images that he can never unsee, but I know that my healing would be healing for him,” he said.

Renner has regularly updated fans on his progress telling followers on social media in November that the accident taught him that time is short and served as a reminder to cherish every day.

“I feel it’s my duty to … be exceptional …. be better,” he shared in a message posted to his Instagram. “Not to squander my life being spared, but to give back to my family, friends, and all of you whom have empowered me to endure.”

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Renner’s post generated over 331,000 likes, with one fans cheering him on in the comments. “Keep. Going. We are SO proud of how hard you have been working. I can’t wait to see you back up on the screen doing what you love!” one wrote.

“So true,” another added. “Your mind is a great healer even in the hardest moments … searching our soul and healing ourselves is the best way to recover.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com

X: @markhdaniell

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