Jeremy Renner Shares Haunting 911 Call After Snow Plow Accident in First Interview

The panicked 911 call made on January 1, after Jeremy Renner was crushed beneath a 14,000-pound snow plow in an effort to rescue his nephew, has been released. In the call, a man describes Renner’s condition as “rough shape. Knowing now the extent of his injuries, rough feels like the understatement of the century. In his first television interview since the accident – Jeremy Renner: The Diane Sawyer Interview – A Story of Terror, Survival and Triumph, set to air April 6 – Renner shares the haunting call alongside details of his recovery, which has included healing from a laundry list of broken bones and punctured organs.

“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,” Sawyer lists off while sitting across from Renner. During the call, previewed in the interview trailer, the actor can be heard groaning in agony while awaiting medical assistance.

“I was awake through every moment,” Renner said, explaining that he remembers every bit of pain he felt. He was using his Pistenbully snow plow to help pull his nephew’s truck out of the snow when the machinery began sliding sideways and downhill, “causing Renner to exit the vehicle without setting the emergency brake,” according to the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office incident report.

“I see him in a pool of blood coming from his head,” his nephew tells Sawyer in the trailer. “I ran up to him. I didn’t think he was alive.” Despite the injuries, pain, and lengthy recovery process, Renner said if given the option again, he would have acted the same in order to save his nephew.

“I chose to survive. That’s not gonna kill me, no way,” Renner told Sawyer. “I’ve lost a lot of flesh and bone in this experience, but I’ve been refueled and refilled with love and titanium.”

In the clip, Renner is seen learning to move around on a knee scooter while undergoing physical therapy. Remembering his initial reaction to his injuries, the actor recalled thinking: “What’s my body going to look like? Am I just going to be a spine and a brain, like a science experiment?”

Jeremy Renner: The Diane Sawyer Interview – A Story of Terror, Survival and Triumph will premiere a few days ahead of Rennervations, the Disney+ series that sees the actor remodeling old vehicles as functional and multifaceted recreational spaces. He has credited the show with being a “driving force” in his recovery.

When Sawyer asked what Renner sees when he looks in the mirror now, as he’s recovering and adjusting to a new normal, he replied: “I see a lucky man.”

From Rolling Stone US.