18 July 2025 — Jeremy Renner has revealed just how determined — and difficult — he was during his intense recovery from his near-fatal snowplough accident in 2023.
Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! with guest host Jelly Roll, the Hawkeye star admitted that nurses were forced to handcuff him to the hospital bed because he kept trying to escape, even while seriously injured.
“I kept wanting to break out of the hospital,” Jeremy laughed. “I was high on whatever they were giving me. I had tubes and epidurals, dragging machines with me, trying to walk on broken legs. I never even made it to the door, but they handcuffed me to the bed because I was such a pain in the butt.”
From Escape Attempts to Hallucinations
Jeremy — who suffered over 30 broken bones, a collapsed lung, and a lacerated liver after being crushed by his snowplough — said that even after getting home, the effects of his medication lingered.
At one point, the 54-year-old actor recalled hallucinating an entire snowmobiling trip with Jamie Foxx.
“Jamie Foxx was there in my room,” he said. “Then we got up and went snowmobiling. All that happened in my mind — it didn’t happen. Good drugs, good drugs.”
He also admitted to talking to a curtain at one point, laughing at how surreal and vivid his hallucinations became.
The Power of Sheer Will
In a separate interview with The Guardian, Jeremy explained that it wasn’t just medication keeping him going — it was sheer mental strength and stubbornness.
“I was bullying my body into thinking it wasn’t that bad. My mind was overcoming the greatest odds it’s ever come up against,” he said. “I had so much to live for. I didn’t want to let anyone down.”
Despite being unable to walk for two months, Jeremy now bears only a few scars from surgery, though much of his leg from the knee to the ankle is now titanium. Still, he says his mouth remains one of the most painful reminders of the ordeal.
“It looks fine, but when I bite down it feels like I’m going to break all my teeth.”
From hallucinations to handcuffs, Jeremy Renner’s road to recovery was anything but ordinary— and he’s telling it all in his powerful new memoir My Next Breath.
