Jeremy Renner Admits He Doesn't 'Have The Energy' to Take on 'Challenging' Roles After His Snowplow Accident

On January 1, 2023, the 'Hawkeye' star was involved in a traumatic accident when he was run over by a 14,300-lb. snowplow

Jeremy Renner is putting his recovery first after his near-fatal snowplow accident.

While appearing on the Smartless podcast on Monday, June 24, the Mayor of Kingstown star, 53, admitted that he currently doesn't "have the energy" to pour himself into demanding or "challenging" roles as he continues to focus on his recovery.

“I just don’t have the energy for it. I don’t have the fuel,” Renner confessed. “I have so much fuel to put into this reality, this body, all this stuff. I can’t just go play make-believe right now. Because that takes a lot of time to get right here every day just so I can have a positive thought, so I can progress, so I can always keep growing.”

Related: A Timeline of Jeremy Renner's Snowplow Accident and His Ongoing Recovery

On January 1, 2023, the Hawkeye star was involved in a terrifying accident when he was run over by a 14,300-lb. snowplow as he was helping a family member get a stuck vehicle out of the estimated three-feet of snowfall from the night before. He was left with 38 broken bones, a collapsed lung and significant chest trauma from the ordeal.

Now that he's largely on the other side of the accident, Renner revealed how the experience helped him value the present moment and how he's come to accept "divine intervention." Though he has a new outlook on life, he admitted that he felt "very terrified" to return in front of the camera.

“Because I’m to do, like, f–--ing fiction? I’m still trying to live in reality, I’m trying to live. So it was a hard line for me to cross," he explained. "It was a big stretch. It was very, very challenging for me mentally to get over that hump."

Related: Jeremy Renner Says Mayor of Kingstown Crew 'Didn't Know What Version of Jeremy Would Come Back' After Accident (Exclusive)

“I still struggle with it sometimes to, like, I don’t take it super seriously. I’m in a character that I can do very well and I know the show very well, so it was easy for me to kind of slide back into it," Renner said of his return to acting with season 3 of Mayor of Kingstown. "But if it was a very challenging role, I couldn’t have taken it. Not challenging in the sense that — because the show’s challenging, but it’s if I had to go play Dahmer or something, something so far from me.”

Renner previously opened up about the challenges he's faced amid his recovery and how he discovered some unexpected restrictions on his physical abilities ever since. In May, the actor told Los Angeles Times that he was learning to walk again when he filmed the latest season of the Disney+ show.

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Once he got in front of the camera, he recalled falling asleep during takes on his first week back. "They go, ‘And action!’ And I was out," he said. "We realized they worked me too hard, too many hours, too many days in a row. What I’m willing to do is everything, but what I’m able to do is a different thing.”

“They have to treat me like I’m a child actor,” Renner explained. “The mayor of Kingstown is now like a 14-year-old.”

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