Jeremy Renner Says ‘I Just Don’t Have the Energy’ or the ‘Fuel’ to Play ‘Challenging’ Characters After Snow Plow Accident

Jeremy Renner admitted in a recent “Smartless” podcast interview that he doesn’t “have the energy” to take on more demanding roles as he continues his recovery from his near-fatal snow plow accident.

“I just don’t have the energy for it. I don’t have the fuel,” Renner said. “I have so much fuel to put into this reality, this body, all this stuff. I can’t just go play make-believe right now. Because that takes a lot of time to get right here every day just so I can have a positive thought, so I can progress, so I can always keep growing.”

In January 2023, Renner was hospitalized for blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries after his Sno-Cat, a large snow plow weighing more than 14,000 pounds, ran him over. He returned to the set of “Mayor of Kingstown” in January of this year to film the third season.

Renner shared with “Smartless” podcast hosts Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes that he was “very terrified” about his return to acting.

“Because I’m to do, like, fucking fiction? I’m still trying to live in reality, I’m trying to live. So it was a hard line for me to cross,” he explained. “It was a big stretch. It was very, very challenging for me mentally to get over that hump.”

“I still struggle with it sometimes to, like, I don’t take it super seriously. I’m in a character that I can do very well and I know the show very well, so it was easy for me to kind of slide back into it,” Renner said of his role as Mike McLusky in “Mayor of Kingstown.” “But if it was a very challenging role, I couldn’t have taken it. Not challenging in the sense that — because the show’s challenging, but it’s if I had to go play Dahmer or something, something so far from me.”

Renner is set to star in Rian Johnson’s whodunit “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” his first film since his snow plow accident. The cast also includes Andrew Scott, Kerry Washington, Glenn Close, Josh O’Connor and Cailee Spaeny, with Daniel Craig reprising his role as private detective Benoit Blanc. Character details have yet to be revealed for the “Knives Out” newcomers, though Renner’s likeness (in the form of a fictional branded hot sauce) appeared in the 2022 sequel “Glass Onion.”

Listen to Renner’s full interview on the “Smartless” podcast below.