Marvel star Jeremy Renner has said he could see his left eyeball with his right eye during an accident which saw him “crushed” by a snowplough.
The Avengers actor, 53, broke more than 30 bones and had multiple operations after he was injured while trying to help his nephew in rural Nevada on January 1 2023.
In an interview with Men’s Health magazine, Renner said he could remember his “head cracking” and his leg being “twisted up like a pretzel” during “every undulation” of the machine.
An immovable object and a crushing force, and something’s got to give. But thank god my skull didn’t fully give
A police report said his nephew Alexander Fries was trying to free his car from the snow when the plough began to roll down the hill.
Renner was airlifted to hospital in Reno, Nevada, and spent some time in intensive care.
Speaking about the snowplough, he told Men’s Health: “It undulates, because there’s four sections of tyres with these metal tracks – it pulls it like a tank.
“I remember every undulation. I remember my head cracking on the thing and it just pressing on me – it’s exactly like you think it would feel.
“An immovable object and a crushing force, and something’s got to give. But thank god my skull didn’t fully give. And then it kept going. Undulate, undulate, undulate, undulate.
“Cheekbone broke, eye socket broke, and then from the crushing of getting run over by the machine, my eye bulged out. I could see my left eyeball with my right eyeball.
“I was screaming for a breath. I needed to shove all my energy of air out just so I could suck air back in. There was no breathing happening.
“It was a muscle I had to use to press, and it’s hard to use your stomach muscles when you have 14 broken ribs and a popped lung. I don’t know this at the time – I just needed to get air.”
He told the magazine that while the incident was taking place he thought of what was “going to hurt later” and how he would have to tell his family he would not be able to go skiing later that day.
Renner added: “The first five minutes were about how I’m going to breathe.
“Then after maybe 10 minutes, my neighbours are there, they called 911, and I got my nephew to hold my arm in a position where – because apparently my ribs are jabbing me and poking my lung.”
The actor said that when emergency services arrived he realised he would “just have to give my body up to them” and his neighbour who called them later told Renner that he “went away” while they were treating him.
The Hawkeye star said he only remembers “shards” of what happened between their arrival and waking up in intensive care.
Renner was seen in drama series Mayor Of Kingstown earlier this year after he recovered from his injuries, and next year he will star in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, which is reportedly his first film since the accident.
