Jeremy Renner screamed ‘not today, motherf***er’ right before being crushed by snowplough

‘It’s my mistake, and I paid for it,’ actor told ABC’s Diane Sawyer

Jeremy Renner revealed he yelled “Not today, motherf***er!” while attempting to stop the 14,000-pound snowplough that would then crush him.

The Hawkeye actor’s first interview since the horrific New Year’s Day incident aired on ABC on Thursday (6 April) in the US.

In it, Renner shared the events leading up to the accident and spoke about his recovery, getting overcome with emotion at times.

The actor explained that he and his 27-year-old nephew, Alex, were attempting to tow a pickup truck out of the snow with his Sno Cat.

However, the plough began to slide on the ice after they disconnected it from the truck and Renner fell out of the cab.

“I just happened to be the dummy standing on the dang track a little bit, seeing if my nephew was there. You shouldn’t be outside the vehicle when you’re operating it, you know what I mean? It’s like driving a car with one foot out of the car,” Renner told interviewer Diane Sawyer. “But it is what it was. And it’s my mistake, and I paid for it.”

Worried that the Sno Cat would “sandwich” Alex between it and the truck, Renner attempted to jump back into the cab at which point he was ran over.

“That’s when I screamed, by the way, when I went under the thing,” Renner said. “‘Not today, motherfucker!’ is what I screamed. Sorry for the language.”

Renner added that he’d “do it again” “because it was going right at my nephew”.

Describing the pain he experienced, Renner recalled: “I was awake through every moment. It’s exactly what you would imagine it would feel like.

“It is hard to imagine what that feels like, but when you look at the machine and you look at – I was on asphalt and ice. I wish I was on snow. It felt like someone took the wind out of you. Too many things are going on in the body to feel pain, it’s everything. It’s like if your soul could have pain.”

Speaking to Sawyer separately, Alex described finding his uncle “in a pool of blood coming from his head”. “I ran up to him, and I didn’t think he was alive,” he said.

“It’s pretty terrifying to see the person that you look up to for so much to be like that, to see them like that.”

Jeremy Renner: The Diane Sawyer Interview – A Story of Terror, Survival and Triumph is out now on Hulu and Disney Plus .