Robert Downey Jr. called it “mind-blowing” to see Jeremy Renner up on his feet and celebrating at Chris Evans‘ wedding last September. The Captain America actor tied the knot with Alba Baptista in a private ceremony in Cape Cod, Mass., and was surrounded by his longtime Marvel co-stars. Renner was hospitalized at the start of 2023 with near-fatal injuries after his snow plow ran him over.
As part of Chris Hemsworth‘s new Vanity Fair cover, some of Evans’ Marvel co-stars remembered attending the wedding and being so proud of Renner’s recovery. Hemsworth attended the nuptials with his mother, who Downey called “a complete hoot. There’s a lot of her in him.”
Evans’ wedding was the first time Hemsworth had seen Renner since the accident, which took place in January 2023. Renner was hospitalized at the time for blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries after his Sno-Cat, a large snow plow that weighs at least 14,330 pounds, ran him over. The actor was trying to help his nephew out of the snow near his home in Lake Tahoe when the Sno-Cat crushed him. His injuries included eight ribs broken in 14 places, his right knee and ankle broken, left leg tibia broken, left ankle broken, right clavicle broken, right shoulder broken and more.
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“He sent us all a sort of a doped out, hospital, beat-up image and said, ‘All good, guys.’ And then I didn’t hear from him for a while as he was in the thick of it,” Hemsworth told Vanity Fair.
“If there’s one characteristic we’d all agree is paramount, it’s resilience,” Downey added about the Avengers crew. “To see Renner embody that literally, and in the context of what was basically a Portuguese American wedding, was mind-blowing. Fully recovered and ready to celebrate. So, yes—miracles happen.”
“There was an astounding sense of gratitude from him around just being alive,” Hemsworth concluded.
Renner’s Marvel co-stars often rallied around him in the months after the accident. The actor told James Corden earlier this year that Anthony Mackie was the first person he remembered seeing at his bedside when he regained consciousness. Mackie and Renner started together in Oscar winner “The Hurt Locker” before their Marvel days.
“One of the first people at my hospital bed was Anthony Mackie. He was in Vegas,” Renner recalled. “He shot over, and he’s the first person I saw when I woke up. And we don’t talk all the time. We’re not, like, hanging out all the time, because the problem with having, you know, actor friends, everyone’s so busy and now we’re all parents and we never see each other. We rarely talk to each other, but the connectedness that we have is an always thing.”
During an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last year, Renner revealed that Ant-Man actor Paul Rudd made a fake Cameo video in the aftermath of the accident in which Rudd playfully said: “Hey Jerry, I hear you’re a little banged up. Got in a fight with a snowblower apparently? Anyway, I just wanted to send this video. It’s really from the heart and I hope you’re feeling better. Sounds like you are. Apparently, you’re a pretty tough guy.”
“Rudd, whom I love so much, happened to be in town as well promoting his movie [‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’],” Renner added. “He came by a couple of times to the hospital and was always just making my day because he’s one of the funniest guys around.”
It didn’t take long for Renner to rebound from his accident. After undergoing various kinds of physical therapy, he was able to attend the April 2023 premiere of his Disney+ series “Rennervations” and walked down the red carpet with a walker. In November 2023, about two months after Evans’ wedding, Renner posted a video on social media that revealed he could run uphill for the first time since the accident. He announced in December that he would be back for another season of his Paramount+ series “Mayor of Kingstown,” marking his return to acting after the accident. And yes, Renner is keen on returning to Marvel and wants to get “strong enough” to be able to play Hawkeye again.
“[I’m doing] probably 90 percent of all the things I needed to be doing … I think another six months will be hopefully running [more] … I got to set goals for myself. I’ll do whatever I can … whatever it takes to get better, to get stronger,” Renner told Entertainment Tonight earlier this year. “It’s a one-way street, this recovery. The rest of my life is about health and wellness. Recovery will be part of the rest of my life, so I look forward to it, man. There’s always something to do to get better, be stronger, be happier, be healthier, and that’s what I look forward to.”
Head over to Vanity Fair’s website to read Hemsworth’s cover story in its entirety.
