Jeremy Renner takes step back from challenging roles

Jeremy Renner, 53, is focusing on his health and recovery following a serious snowplough accident, telling the Smartless podcast that he lacks the energy to take on tough jobs.

Renner is choosing less difficult projects as he continues focusing on rehabilitation.

“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.”

On January 1, 2023, while rescuing a family member with a stranded vehicle in three feet of snow, the Hawkeye star was run over by a 14,300-pound snowplough.

The accident left him with 38 shattered bones, a collapsed lung, and significant chest injuries.

Renner reflected on the incident, saying it taught him to appreciate the present moment and accept "divine intervention."

Despite having received a fresh perspective on life, he admits to being "very terrified" of returning to front of the camera.

“Because I’m to do, like, f***ing 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 return to acting with season 3 of 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.”