Jeremy Renner 'Overdid It' in First Return to Film After Breaking 38 Bones in Snowplow Accident

Renner, who broke 38 bones after being run over by a snowplow outside of his Reno, Nevada home on New Year's Day 2023 -- including his "taint" -- spoke to the Los Angeles Times, about his injury and how he's recovery now more than a year after that fateful day.

The Hawkeye actor said it cost him "a lot of dough" to pay for some of the medical procedures that he underwent as a result of the accident, despite having health insurance.

"But what do I care," he quipped of the large hospital bill. "I'm alive. I'm walking through life with a smile on my face. And there's nothing that’s ever going to change that. Nothing. It's impossible for me to have a bad day."

While Renner is able to joke about the accident today, he was bedridden for quite some, re-learning how to walk and undergoing extensive physical therapy before he could even go home, let alone step on a film set again.

Recovery is easy, he said, "in the the sense of all you gotta do is get better. It's a one-way street. There's no other avenues to take. It's not even [like] a piece of Ikea furniture -- there are no directions. You go one direction: You get better. How easy is that? Just remember what you did yesterday, or couldn't do, and then try to do it today."

Doctors initially said it would take years for him to walk again; instead, within three months, he was walking with the assistance of a cane -- something he attributes to being "a stubborn jerk."

That stubbornness landed Renner back on the set of his show, Mayor of Kingstown, just over a year after the accident. While many were shocked by his quick recovery and return to set, the 53-year-old actor was determined and ready, though now, he admits he may have overdid it a bit by jumping back into things at full steam.

During his first week back on the job, Renner says he would sometimes fall asleep in the middle of filming a scene.

"They go, 'And action!' And I was out. We realized they worked me too hard, too many hours, too many days in a row," he said, looking back. "What I'm willing to do is everything, but what I'm able to do is a different thing."

Producers modified the schedule to accommodate his needs. He also carved out time to stretch and exercise on set, sometimes between takes.

"They have to treat me like I'm a child actor," Renner joked. The mayor of Kingstown is now like a 14-year-old."

Despite it all, the pain and even the nightmares that still sometimes come with facing a near death experience such as this, Renner said there has been some unexpected benefits, including a photographic memory, which he said helps him memorize dialogue.

"The eyeball that came out of my head? I have better vision in that eye than the other eye," he noted. "I think I'm getting bionic."

With season 3 of Mayor of Kingstown set to premiere next month and a potential return to the MCU teased, Renner is weighing his options as far as what's next.

"The only currency I have is time," he said before revealing he has a book in the works about "life and death and recovery and all the things I've learned."

"I've got a lot of cheat codes," he continued, before revealing the biggest one of all: "Death is only a rebirth."