Jeremy Renner has been steadily picking up the pace of his life just a little over a year since a devastating accident nearly took his life.
The Oscar-nominated actor has been holed up in Pittsburgh filming his Paramount+ hit series Mayor of Kingstown, while also just announcing that he’s joining the cast of the upcoming film Knives Out 3.
On top of filling up his acting schedule, Renner says that upon returning to Los Angeles he’ll begin writing a book, “because I have nothing else to do with my life,” he says half joking.
Most important perhaps for the Hurt Locker actor, he’s improving at running, months after being told by doctors that he may never return to walking. His viral social media posting, filmed 10 months after the accident, in which the actor skipping down his driveway then sprinting back up became a worldwide inspiration and also helped make him the face of Brooks Running’s “Let’s Run There” campaign.
“Every time I tell a story, I get a little it’s pretty emotional, because it’s something that I didn’t plan on doing,” Renner says. “Nobody planned on it ever happening for me, and only in reflection, can I really feel how much hope it gave me that day. It became something I posted and it’s become pretty popular, even with Brooks, who saw what a great moment it was.”
From Near Death to Brooks Running Spokesman
Jeremy Renner’s feet-driven feat—and motivational partnership with Brooks—came nearly a year after a long and painful recovery process following his Jan. 1, 2023 snow plow accident. Renner was crushed by a 7-ton Sno-Cat after he tried to help his nephew out of the snow near his Lake Tahoe home. The accident shattered 38 bones, popped his eyeball out of its socket, and required countless surgeries. “My body’s half metal,” he says. “There’s limitations to certain things, but I feel stronger and faster, like I’m the $6 million Man.”
Progress he says came in tiny benchmarks The Hawkeye star and his family would set. “Sitting up was a milestone,” he says. During his recovery, Renner recalls Brooks sending him some shoes to try out—the brand’s Ghost model—while getting back into his physical flow. “I would just wear them around the house at the time, because I wasn’t too mobile, but they felt good on my joints when I was working out.”
Renner would rely on free weights and and an assisted treadmill during his recovery. However, last October, Renner stepped outside and gave outdoor running a try. The result: He was able to shuffle his way down the driveway and then make a run back to the top. It was a milestone even he wasn’t totally prepared for.
“I went from being on my deathbed, to being told I wouldn’t walk, to then sprinting up my driveway, in their shoes,” he recalls. “So a few months later, [Brooks] put together this, “Let’s run There” campaign, and asked if I wanted to be a part of it. It became pretty congruent with my attitude and recovery.”
A New Outlook for Jeremy Renner
Renner would eventually like to elevate his running goals to include short-burst sprints as well as distance (“I hope they make sprinting shoes with the spikes because I’m trying to work toward that,” he says). On set, he’s seen his physical strength improve significantly these days as opposed to when he first returned.
“I know only in the beginning of filming a little dicey,” he admits. “There was a lot of people who had to help me, but by the end of the show, I was doing pretty great.”
Although his recovery has been quicker than many expected, Renner still knows there’s a long road ahead of him. He says he still needs to regain a significant amount of muscle and strength he lost due to months of being bedridden. And like running, a big part of the process is getting back that mind-muscle connection. “Having to retrain my brain how to move and walk properly up and downhill has been really important,” he says.
Life is speeding up again for Renner, but this time, he vows not to let it overwhelm him to the point of overlooking what’s become the most important elements of his life—his family and his health.
“I don’t give too much attention to the busyness of life or career or other things I may have given time to,” he says. “That’s a bigger shift. I’ve learned to finally clean up the white noise we all tend to collect in life.”
