Jeremy Renner mentioned how the considered returning to performing after a near-fatal accident 18 months in the past left him “terrified” and shared how he now has little urge for food for brand new, difficult performing roles as he’s centered on his bodily and psychological restoration.

“I simply don’t have the vitality for it. I don’t have the gasoline,” Renner advised hosts Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes on their Smartless podcast throughout an episode launched Monday. “I’ve a lot gasoline to place into this actuality, this physique, all these things. I can’t simply go play make-believe proper now. As a result of that takes loads of time to get proper right here day-after-day simply so I can, , have a constructive thought, so I can progress, so I can at all times continue to grow.”

Renner, whose Paramount+ collection Mayor of Kingstown is at present airing its third season, broke greater than 30 bones in his physique within the New Yr’s Day accident in 2023. As he tried to filter heavy snow, he was run over by a 14,300-pound snowcat at his dwelling in Reno, Nevada. Renner mentioned that his rib cage was rebuilt with steel, together with plates in his face to assist his eye sockets and titanium rods in one in every of his legs. 

Renner, who’s additionally well-known for taking part in Hawkeye within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and earned an Oscar nomination for his breakout function in The Damage Locker, advised the hosts that taking up a brand new function is one thing he wasn’t prepared for as a result of performing in one thing heavy simply isn’t possible for him. 

“As a result of I’m to do, like, fucking fiction? I’m nonetheless making an attempt to dwell in actuality, I’m making an attempt to dwell,” Renner mentioned. “So it was a tough line for me to cross. … It was a giant stretch. It was very, very difficult for me mentally to recover from that hump,” he mentioned in response to Bateman’s remark that his job obtained extra pretend as his life obtained all too actual. 

“I nonetheless battle with it typically. … I don’t take it tremendous critically. I’m in a personality that I can do very properly and I do know the present very properly, so it was straightforward for me to type of slide again into it. But when it was a really difficult function, I couldn’t have taken it. Not difficult within the sense that — as a result of the present’s difficult, nevertheless it’s if I needed to go play [Jeffrey] Dahmer or one thing, one thing so removed from me,” he mentioned. 

Within the episode, the actor additionally revealed to listeners of the hit podcast that he’s writing a guide about his life over the previous years as he has recovered bodily and mentally from his brush with loss of life. 

“I’m going to spend the entire summer season doing it — hopefully I can get it out by yr’s finish or starting of subsequent yr,” Renner mentioned.