Jeremy Renner Sits Down With Diane Sawyer In First Interview Since Near-Death Accident
Jeremy Renner sat down with Diane Sawyer for his first interview since a snowplow accident that nearly killed him.
The hourlong special, Jeremy Renner: The Diane Sawyer Interview — A Story of Terror, Survival and Triumph, will chronicle both the actor’s recovery and the moment he was pulled under a 14,000-pound snowplow, per The Hollywood Reporter.
“I chose to survive,” Renner tells Sawyer in a two-minute trailer for the interview, which airs next Thursday. “You’re not going to kill me. No way.”
Renner was seriously injured on Jan. 1 while trying to save his nephew from being run over by a malfunctioning Sno-Cat after the actor exited the vehicle without setting an emergency brake, according to an incident report.
Renner told Sawyer he tried to stop the snowplow by stepping on the tracks only to be pinned underneath. He said he was “awake for every moment.”
“I’d do it again,” Renner tells Sawyer in the trailer. “Because it was going right at my nephew.”
The Marvel actor was airlifted to a local hospital with a punctured lung and 30 broken bones, including an eye socket, eight ribs (broken in 14 places), a right knee, left tibia, clavicle, right shoulder and both ankles, Renner told Sawyer.
The Sawyer special will include some of the 911 recordings capturing his agonising pain after the accident.
“I just perfectly see him in a pool of blood from his head,” Renner’s nephew recalls in the trailer. “I ran up to him. I didn’t think he was alive.”
Renner underwent multiple surgeries and has made enormous strides since then. He returned home on Jan. 16 and has posted on social media about some of his physical therapy regimen, which includes an anti-gravity treadmill.
“Much love and appreciation to you all,” Renner wrote on Instagram on Jan. 21. “These 30 plus broken bones will mend , grow stronger, just like the love and bond with family and friends deepens . Love and blessings to you all.”
“Jeremy Renner: The Diane Sawyer Interview — A Story of Terror, Survival and Triumph” airs April 6 at 10 p.m. EST on ABC and streams on Hulu the next day.