The actor sat down with Diane Sawyer to detail the terrifying events of the snowcat accident that nearly took his life.
Jeremy Renner is happy to let a stuntman handle those treacherous Marvel stunts from here on out. In an interview that aired Thursday night on ABC, the 52-year-old actor spoke with Diane Sawyer, and emotionally recounted the near-death snowcat accident on New Year's Day that landed him in the hospital with 30-plus broken bones and required chest surgery.
While he's still a ways from being back on set, Renner, who long performed many of his MCU stunts himself, said he's "OK" with letting a stuntman take the reins.
"I'm OK with a stunt guy doing it at this point," Renner admitted. "I'm 52. It's fine. I've done enough. I'm OK to do more, right? But, I'm Ok. I have no ego. Yeah, go for it. I don't care."
He quipped, "I'll be in my trailer."
Elsewhere in the interview, Renner recalled in excruciating detail the emotion and pain he suffered in the wake of an accident that required him to be airlifted to a hospital and left him in critical condition.
Though footage shared with ABC shows Renner now walking with the help of a cane, he still feels flashes of pain from the extensive surgery he had to undergo, filling him with screws, metal plates and even rubber bands.
"I'm also re-learning," he told Sawyer. "I'm re-learning to speak again with this broken jaw."
Painful memories of what happened often come in waves, with Renner sharing that he's still "triggered" by the accident, which remembers "all of."
"I was awake through every moment," he told Sawyer.
The ABC News anchor also interviewed Renner's nephew, Alexander Fries, whom the actor was trying to rescue after Fries' car got stuck in the snow. Fries told Sawyer he ran up to Renner after the accident unfolded and thought his uncle was dead.
In one of the more dramatic moments, Sawyer reads off the extensive list of injuries Renner suffered, which included eight ribs broken in 14 places, a broken right knee and ankle, a broken left leg, tibia and left ankle, as well as a broken right shoulder.
"Face, eye socket, the jaw, the mandible broken, lung collapsed, pierced from the rib bone, your liver. Sounds terrifying," she said.
Renner spoke about his determination to live. "I chose to survive, this is not going to kill me," he said.
The sheer determination to survive the horrific accident didn't mean Renner wasn't planning for the worst. He told Sawyer, while struggling to choke back tears, he began writing his final words to his family.
"So, I'm writing down notes on my phone," Renner said as he began to cry. "Last words to my family."
On New Year's Day, Renner was crushed by a snowcat near his home in the Mt. Rose Highway area of Reno, Nevada. In the 911 call placed by a neighbor to the Washoe County Sheriff's Office, Renner can be heard moaning in agony as the neighbor does his best to explain the situation to the operator, and reassure the injured actor that help is on the way.
"He is in rough shape," the neighbor said, after explaining that Renner had been crushed by the snowcat. "We just need someone here right away with life-saving techniques."
"He got crushed up on his right side, yeah, his right chest and upper torso," the neighbor continued during the call. "His ribs look like they might be crushed. He's got a head wound as well."
According to a redacted Washoe County Sheriff’s Office incident report, obtained by ET, Renner towed his nephew's vehicle after it got stuck in the snow. In the process, the snowplow began to move, and Renner tried to prevent his nephew from being hurt.
The trouble arose after the snowcat, a PistenBully snow groomer, started "sliding sideways" and then "began to roll down the hill," spurring Renner to jump out of the machine, he told officials. However, his nephew was in the path of danger.
"Once he was off the PistenBully, he realized it was heading directly toward (his nephew)," the report read. "He feared the PistenBully was going to hit (his nephew), so he decided to attempt to stop or divert the PistenBully." Renner then attempted to access the snow groomer's cab by climbing onto the moving track, but was "immediately pulled under the left side track."
"The PistenBully rolled over him and continued down the road,” the report stated. "He laid on the ground and focused on his breathing while (his nephew and others) rendered aid to him until medical personnel arrived on scene."
Renner would go on to celebrate his 52nd birthday from the hospital bed and thanked family, friends and fans for their outpouring support.
And after everything he's gone through, the Hawkeye star maintained that he'd do it all again if it meant saving his nephew.
"I have no regrets. I'd do it again," he said to a surprised Sawyer. "Yeah, I'd do it again. I refuse to have that be a trauma, and be a negative experience. That doesn't mean I'm proud of -- because I wouldn't let it happen to my nephew."
Renner added, "'Cause I shift the narrative of being victimized or making a mistake or anything else. I refuse to be f**king haunted by that memory, that way."
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