Jeremy Renner will sit down with Diane Sawyer for his first television
interview since the critical snow plow accident that nearly cost him his
life. The ABC News special, titled “Jeremy Renner: The Diane Sawyer
Interview – A Story of Terror, Survival and Triumph,” will air in April
ahead of the world premiere of Renner’s new Disney+ series “Rennervations,”
which will serve as the actor’s first public press appearance since the
accident.
“All of it,” Renner tells Sawyer when asked how much of
the pain he remembers. “I was awake through every moment.”
Renner
was hospitalized for blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries at the start
of January after his Sno-Cat, a large snow plow that weighs at least 14,330
pounds, ran him over. The actor was trying to help his nephew out of the
snow near his home in Lake Tahoe when the Sno-Cat crushed him.
“I see him in a pool of blood coming from his head,” Renner’s
nephew tells Sawyer in the ABC News special. “I ran up to him. I didn’t
think he was alive.”
A teaser for the Renner interview includes
the shocking 911 call made to save Renner’s life (the actor is heard moaning
in pain as people tell him to “keep fighting), as well Sawyer reading off a
long list of Renner’s injuries, which include “eight ribs broken in 14
places. Right knee, right ankle broken, left leg tibia broken, left ankle
broken, right clavicle broken, right shoulder broken. Face, eye socket, jaw,
mandible broken. Lung collapsed. Pierced from the rib bone, your liver —
which sounds terrifying.”
“What’s my body going to look like?”
Renner remembers thinking about all of his injuries. “Am I just going to be
a spine and a brain, like a science experiment?”
The actor
remains stoic during the interview clip but briefly tears up when Sawyer
says, “I heard that you had, in sign language, you said to your family, ‘I’m
sorry.’”
“I chose to survive. That’s not gonna kill me, no way,” he
says. “I’ve lost a lot of flesh and bone in this experience, but I’ve been
refueled and refilled with love and titanium.” The teaser features footage
of Renner’s physical therapy, including him using a knee scooter to move
around.
“When you look in the mirror, do you see a new face?”
Sawyer asks, to which Renner replies, “No, I see a lucky man.”
A
few days after the interview airs, Renner will appear in person at the
“Rennervations” world premiere, taking place April 11 at Los Angeles’
Regency Village Theater. The actor will participate in a Q&A after a
screening. All four episodes of “Rennervations,” the actor’s new vehicle
renovation show, begin streaming April 12 on Disney+.
Since the January accident, Renner has used social media to
keep his fans updated through his physical therapy. Just recently, the
“Hawkeye” actor posted a video in which he appeared walking for the first
time with the assistance of an anti-gravity treadmill. The actor captioned
the post: “Now is the time for my body to rest and recover from my will.”
“Jeremy
Renner: The Diane Sawyer Interview – A Story of Terror, Survival and
Triumph” is set to air April 6 on ABC. The special will also be available to
stream on Hulu.
