Jeremy Renner on not playing challenging roles after snow plow accident, says ‘I just dont have the energy’ or ‘fuel’

During the podcast, "The Hurt Locker" star revealed to hosts that he felt “very terrified” about resuming his acting career. (Image via X)

Marvel’s Hawkeye, Jeremy Renner was one of Hollywood’s most in demand actor just a few years ago, but ever since the actor got caught up in a gnarly snow plow accident, the actor has taken things a little easier on himself.

In a candid conversation on the "Smartless" podcast, Jeremy Renner, 53, opened up about his current struggles with taking on demanding acting roles as he recovers from a life-threatening snow plow accident.

“I just don’t have the energy for it. I don’t have the fuel," Renner confessed. “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.”

Back in January 2023, Renner suffered severe chest and orthopedic injuries after being run over by his 14,000-pound Sno-Cat. Despite this, he managed to return to the set of "Mayor of Kingstown" to work on its third season in early 2024.

During the podcast, "The Hurt Locker" star revealed to hosts Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes that he felt “very terrified” about resuming his acting career.

“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 shared. "It was a big stretch. It was very, very challenging for me mentally to get over that hump.”

Renner acknowledged that he still finds it challenging at times. “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 about 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.”

Jeremy Renner is set to appear in Rian Johnson's "Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery," marking his first film since the accident. The ensemble cast features Andrew Scott, Kerry Washington, Glenn Close, Josh O'Connor, and Cailee Spaeny, with Daniel Craig reprising his role as detective Benoit Blanc.

Character specifics for the new cast members remain undisclosed, though Renner’s image did make a brief appearance in the form of a fictional hot sauce brand in the 2022 sequel "Glass Onion."