Jeremy Renner — Oscar-nominated actor known for The Hurt Locker and Marvel's Hawkeye. In January 2023 he was run over by a snowcat, broke 38 bones, and wrote a memoir, My Next Breath, about his recovery.
The gist
Renner recounts in graphic detail the New Year's Day 2023 accident in which his own snowcat ran over his entire body, breaking 38 bones and crushing his skull while sparing his spine and organs. He describes a brutal, self-driven recovery built on will, family love, peptides, hyperbaric and red-light therapy, blood-panel optimization, and cold-turkey quitting OxyContin. The conversation turns philosophical, with Renner arguing that suffering is the foundation of love and that perspective is the only thing anyone truly controls. He and Rogan trade life stories about rootless childhoods, martial arts, the audition grind, and the value of community. Renner closes on the foster-youth charity that he believes is the reason he was brought back.
Big reveals
- Renner's entire body, including his skull, was run over by the 16,000-lb snowcat and he was conscious through all six track undulations.
- He suffered 38 broken bones and an eyeball popped out, which he rolled onto the icy driveway to keep it on ice.
- His family heard prognoses of losing his eye and amputating his leg before a specialist doctor in Reno took the case.
- He quit OxyContin cold turkey and cried uncontrollably for three and a half days from withdrawal without realizing it was withdrawal.
- His hemoglobin was at 2 and testosterone at 200; he fell asleep mid-scene on set during his return to work.
- Renner states that at any other point in history he would have died: '20 years ago, you're dead.'
- He believes the real reason he was brought back to life is his foundation work for foster youth.
- Claims he no longer has bad days at all since the accident reset his perspective.
Things worth remembering
- The accident happened while clearing a half-mile driveway at 8,000 feet at the top of Lake Tahoe after a blizzard.
- A doctor removed skull/jaw screws using a tool 'he got from Home Depot,' which Renner found more traumatic than the accident itself.
- Surgeons fixed only one or two of his many broken ribs and let the rest fall into place as the body heals.
- Renner uses a hyperbaric chamber large enough to work in plus a high-powered red-light infrared bed for tissue recovery.
- Fritos are a great emergency fire starter because they're soaked in oil and stay lit a long time.
- At age 12 his pregnant mom brought him to a Lamaze class, which sparked a lifelong fascination with conscious breathing.
- Renner spent about a year at Fort Irwin learning to build and disarm bombs for The Hurt Locker and had to flag unsafe rigging on set.
- His foundation operates at roughly 8% overhead, with nearly all donations going directly to foster kids.
- Foster kids arrive at his camps carrying their belongings in Hefty bags, so he gives them rolling luggage with their names and a journal called a 'passport.'