Jeremy Renner is back to doing what he does best — acting. However, there was a time when he thought he would never walk again after a devastating snowplow accident. The actor opened up about what it's like to return to work after experiencing something so traumatic.
Renner said he considered never acting again. However, he ultimately found his passion again.
"I had to cross the threshold of, 'Do I want to go tell fictional stories?' I'm worried about real life — putting a foot in front of another to walk," Renner said in an interview on Good Morning America. "I think what happened is we just switched the thinking of the whole thing — I didn't go to Pittsburgh to film Mayor of Kingstown, I went to go in my recovery. And then Kingstown was kind of on the side."
Jeremy Renner Talks Recovery
Despite his ability to be "headstrong," Renner said his body didn't match his mind. He struggled to pick himself back up. "My mind thinks I'm like, perfect. My body is saying, 'Dude, you're a hot mess! Chill out, pump the breaks, man!'," Renner said. "But again, nothing is wrong with my brain, even though it got crushed."
That being said, you probably won't have him perform any big action set pieces. He said that he's focused on "more emotional, intimate" moments as he goes into Mayor of Kingstown. "There's more sentiment to it. Because I think I sort of had to bring it in a little bit. Just because of where I was at in my life," Renner told GMA. "Mike McLusky is still pretty aggro, but I think he's a little softer as well, just sort of 'cause I had to play him."
Renner is focused on recovering. It takes time. "I try to just do everything kind of step by step here. That's one foot in front of the other one. Then you're walking," he said. "I think I'm excited when I'm there and I get in a rhythm there. I'm excited about the character and, of course, all the people involved and all that in the storyline, but for me, I'm just tentative of confidence in work."
