was your wonderment about where the agents/SO were in the mix serious?
I’m sorry to hear that. You have my sympathies.
Because people sometimes enjoy doing physical work. John Travolta flies his own airplanes when he very clearly could get someone else to do it for him. Ronald Reagan was famous for chopping wood at his estate when he of course could have had someone else do it for him. Jay Leno works on his car collection himself (and recently got hurt doing so). Yard work? Some people like to do their own gardening and landscaping as opposed to, say, taking up painting as a hobby.
So do most other people, and arguably, a typical tradesman is going to be in a lot worse situation than a wealthy celebrity if long-term adaptions are needed.
Jay Leno said something along the lines of people get hurt every day working on cars, but they don’t get the publicity he did. Those other people typically have far fewer resources to deal with the situation.
I don’t wish Mr. Renner any harm, I hope he fully recovers from this, but if he doesn’t he has the money to, for example, buy state-of-the-art adaptive aids, or modify his home more so than someone like myself.
I suspect they’re trying to save his legs, but that’s total speculation because, of course, I don’t have any better source of information than anyone else around here.
We’re also now hearing about “blunt chest trauma”. I expect we’ll eventually learn more. Wonder if he somehow fell out of the machine and landed such that his leg(s) wound up under the tracks.
The big difference with athletes is they often have contracts that prohibit them from doing certain activities. In baseball especially contracts are guaranteed. They pay even if injured. If they injury themselves in a manner that is prohibited then it may void the contract. Actors may enter into contracts for specific roles that have prohibitions in them but they generally don’t live under them full time.
And sometimes it’s just a freak accident and the activity isn’t particularly dangerous
Because it’s fulfilling. For an actor or sports figure who has become wealthy, I suppose they must be passionate about their career. But it doesn’t mean that their career is their only passion. Some people like to write poetry or play music, but some folks like to do physical work, which inevitably entails some risk. I bet Renner has had a lot of fun pushing snow around with a snowcat, and probably also enjoys the luxury of making it happen exactly when and how he wants to instead of having to wait for a hired plow operator to come around to your property.
If you had tens of millions of dollars in the bank, how would you choose to spend your freetime? Would you pay someone to take care of all the upkeep on your estate?
So does virtually everybody. My dad’s hobby was working on/around our home, which involved plenty of power tools ranging from table saws to routers to chainsaws, and plenty of risky tasks like roofing. My parents weren’t wealthy: if he had mangled his hands or fallen off of the roof at a young age, our whole family would have been fucked.
Jeremy Renner, OTOH, is stinking rich. If his injuries somehow end his acting career, then he’ll probably be missing out on an activity he enjoyed doing, but he already has enough money to do whatever else he wants for the rest of his life and get the best help available for dealing with whatever disabilities this accident leaves him with.
This. Michael Dorn, the actor who plays Worf in the ST:TNG franchise, owns a number of small planes and enjoys flying. He was prohibited from flying them while he was filming the various ST:TNG movies.
For those who didn’t know, Renner is also in production on an upcoming Disney+ series (“Rennervations”) based directly on his passion for construction, home renovation, and the like:
https://dmedmedia.disney.com/disney-plus/rennervations
“RENNERVATIONS,” is an original four-part series that embraces Jeremy Renner’s lifelong passion to give back to communities around the world by reimagining unique purpose-built vehicles to meet a community’s needs. Behind the big screen, Jeremy is a construction aficionado, and he is heavily invested in the highly creative fabricator culture that exists across the globe and hopes to change lives with these skills and inspire others to do the same.
His case may have some unique elements in that regard.
I should expand on this a bit. When they do something like trimming the hedges or working on a car, it’s literally because they want to. When you’re fabulously rich, there’s no such thing as chores. Every single bit of household work you do is because you’ve decided the enjoyment of the activity outweighs the effort involved and time spent.
Normal folks don’t have that luxury. For the vast majority of people, hiring a gardener is either an utter impossibility or a carefully considered line on the budget. Not so for the rich. For the vast majority of people, hiring a mechanic is an unfortunate expense precipitated by lack of knowledge and ability. If Jeremy Renner is trimming the hedges, it’s because he wants to. If Jay Leno is working on a car, likewise.
Take your average middle-class schlub and ask why he does what he does. The answers will be various forms of "because he needs ____________." Take your average international movie star and the answers will almost always boil down to because he wants to."
The simply don’t live in the same world we do.
I never warmed to Renner, but that doesn’t matter. I hope he pulls through and has a full recovery.
Seriously. I guess it’s assumed once you’re wealthy you just sit around all day eating bon-bons and the servants take care of all the mundane chores of living. If I were rich enough to own a snow plow and had a need to use it on my estate, I certainly would not let someone else have all the fun. Clearly he enjoyed this activity, but sometimes shit happens.
Shoveling snow is one thing, but driving that snowcat? I could definitely seeing doing that for fun.
Brian
Renner sounds like a very caring person.
Based on the reporting it sounds like the Snow Cat brakes failed or it somehow shifted into gear.
I hope Renner eventually recovers from his injuries.It sounds like it could be a long recovery
Dude posted a selfie from his hospital bed. Looks like he had the hell beat out of him, but he’s apparently conscious:
I saw this. Good sign. Hope he recovers fully.
Calling this a “weather-related” accident feels like a stretch. This was a heavy-machinery accident. I know the classifications aren’t super important, but what passes for thoughtful reporting is always comical.
Wonder if this will lead to a conversation about whether untrained civilians ought to be out there using heavy equipment like this. Whatever the exact circumstances this will probably ultimately be classified as operator error.
Also possible he left it in neutral with the parking brake off, and it just started gently rolling downhill after he got out. I once parked a stick-shift car and got out, having left it in neutral with the parking brake off; the person I was meeting with pointed at my car and said it was rolling, so I hustled back to it and jumped in to properly park it. In my case, it was only rolling 1-2 MPH at the time, and it didn’t have big flesh-rending track belts on it, so not much risk involved.
Yup.
From the Dr. Demento Facebook page:
“Jeremy got run over by a Snow Plow
Towing home his car on New Year’s Eve
You can say there won’t be no more Hawkeye
But all us Marvel fanboys still believe”
The sheriff has released a preliminary report, more or less what we expected, it started rolling when he was out of it, he tried to regain control and it rolled over him.
Jeremy Renner Snow Plow Accident: Star, Reno Sheriff Speak Out – The Hollywood Reporter
So, the sheriff had good things to say about Renner’s as a member of the community. I don’t know him, of course, but this clip from Graham Norton where he talks about the kids being the best part of being in Avengers movies makes me want to wish him the best recovery.
I vaguely recall internet memes mocking Renner for ego or whatever over the years, but AFAICT he’s a fine actor and a decent person. Best wishes for his recovery.
I’ve never driven a Snowcat, but I’ve been around them a lot and sat in one about the vintage of the one Renner is seen driving (straight outta the 80’s!). They don’t seem to be much more complicated than a skidsteer tractor, aka Bobcat, which I have driven many times. Two sticks, and some controls for the plow blade.
The modern ones in use at major ski resorts are like war machines. Much larger and much more complex. The ones I see have three seats abreast, the driver works in the middle (never seen more than one operator) using two joysticks on either side of the seat. A big-ass plow up front that manipulates a thousand ways and a drag on the back. I’ve also seen special attachments for making half-pipes and terrain park nonsense. Fun to watch them.