The path from slinging mascara brushes in a dimly lit salon to standing shoulder-to-shoulder with gods and spies on the silver screen is a road less traveled—and one paved with grit, instinct, and a refusal to blink in the face of chaos. Jeremy Renner has navigated this improbable ascent with the precision of an arrow loosed from Hawkeye’s bow, a journey that’s seen him dodge obscurity, defy gravity, and, most recently, cheat death itself. Now, as he carves out the next chapter of an already storied career—filming Mayor of Kingstown Season 4 in Pittsburgh, penning a raw memoir titled My Next Breath, and steering his Rennervation Foundation into new horizons—Renner stands as a testament to the kind of tenacity that turns near-misses into bullseyes.
It’s a tale that begins not with a red carpet but with a makeup kit, a side hustle that kept the lights on while Renner chased auditions in the unforgiving sprawl of Los Angeles. “I never really thought about giving up because I never saw acting as just a job—it was something I needed to do,” he told Jetset during a break from filming in Pittsburgh. The grind was relentless, but the fire was unquenchable. “I loved it. The passion was always there, even when the paychecks weren’t.” That belief—that if he kept sharpening his craft, something would break—propelled him through the lean years until a little film called The Hurt Locker detonated his career into the stratosphere.
The 2010 Oscar nomination for playing bomb-disposal maverick William James didn’t just open doors—it kicked them down. “It changed everything overnight,” Renner recalls. “Suddenly, I was in rooms I’d never been in before. The industry started looking at me differently.” Choices materialized where once there were none, and the very next year, he was trading heists with Ben Affleck in The Town, snagging another Oscar nod and soaking up lessons from a director who knew how to wield a lens and a script with equal finesse. “Ben gave actors freedom but was precise in his vision,” Renner told Jetset. “It made me see storytelling as something you can shape beyond just your lines.”
Then came the blockbuster blitz—Thor in 2011, The Avengers in 2012, The Bourne Legacy, Mission: Impossible. For a guy who’d spent years clawing his way into Hollywood’s orbit, the sudden leap to franchise juggernauts was a surreal high-wire act. “I’d been trying to get in the door forever, so to be at the center of these massive films was wild,” he admits. “But I never took it for granted. Hollywood’s unpredictable—one minute you’re hot, the next you’re not.” Playing Hawkeye, the MCU’s everyman archer with no superpowers—just skill, grit, and a stubborn streak—felt like destiny. “I wasn’t a hardcore comic book kid, but I loved grounded heroes who could stand with the gods. Hawkeye was that guy, and I got him on a real level.”
On the Avengers set, surrounded by heavyweights like Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson, Renner found a playground amid the chaos. “It was a blast,” he told Jetset. “Robert set the tone—funny, talented, real—and the chemistry just clicked.” But don’t let the laughs fool you—those action sequences were a full-body gauntlet. “You’re in harnesses, doing wire work, fight choreography, dodging explosions—all while making it look cool,” he says. “Your body takes a beating.” Chemistry with co-stars like Johansson? That’s no accident either. “It’s about trust,” he explains. “You listen, you react, you stay present. It can’t be faked.”
Renner was riding a turbo-charged rocket ship to the top, a self-made star who’d turned hustle into Hollywood gold. But on January 1, 2023, the ride screeched to a halt—or rather, it was crushed under 14,000 pounds of steel. A freak PistenBully snowcat accident left him broken, bleeding, and fighting for air on a frozen Nevada slope. “The moment I tried to breathe and couldn’t, I knew it was serious,” he says, describing the urgency of the sudden tragedy. “I had to manually breathe or I was going to die.” With over 30 broken bones, a collapsed lung, and a prognosis that could’ve ended lesser men, Renner faced the abyss. “There were moments I thought I might not make it,” he admits. “But the stronger thought was: You have to live. My daughter, my family—that’s what pulled me through.”
The recovery was a brutal odyssey—relearning to walk, stand, even breathe without wincing. “The hardest part was starting over,” he says. Yet the comeback began the second he hit the ice. “Lying there, knowing I had to keep breathing—that was when I started fighting back. Everything after was just one step at a time.” The world watched, jaws dropped, as Renner clawed his way to wholeness, sharing glimpses of his journey with a message as clear as it was raw: “Pain is real, struggle is real, but so is strength.” Stunts, once his calling card, now come with a recalibrated lens. “I’m more thoughtful now,” he says. “The stakes are different.”
Photography by John Russo
That relentless spirit spills into every corner of his life. Take the Rennervation Foundation, his passion project turning decommissioned vehicles into lifelines for underserved kids. “It’s about giving them tools to dream bigger,” he says, his pride palpable. From summer camps where he’s elbow-deep in the action to holiday events like Christmas on the Comstock, Renner’s not just a name on a letterhead—he’s in the trenches. “Seeing those kids light up, that’s personal to me,” he says. Then there’s My Next Breath, his upcoming memoir that’s less a victory lap and more a gut-punch reflection on survival. “It’s not just about the accident,” he explains. “It’s my whole messy journey—Hollywood, loss, fatherhood. Every breath now is a choice, a gift.” Writing it was a revelation. “It showed me strength I didn’t know I had,” he says.
Today, Renner’s back on set in Pittsburgh, channeling grit into Mayor of Kingstown Season 4 under Taylor Sheridan’s sharp eye. “Pittsburgh’s got soul—it fits the show,” he says, savoring the city’s warmth off-camera. Private jets—Gulfstreams, Bombardiers—whisk him between gigs, a rare slice of calm in a storm of a schedule. “It’s downtime when time’s tight,” he quips. But what fuels this man who’s stared down death and kept running? “Being present for my daughter,” he says without hesitation. “After everything, purpose and connection mean it all.”
Jeremy Renner’s story isn’t just the American Dream—it’s the human one, redefined. A guy who turned near-misses into near-myths, who took the hits and kept swinging. Binge his body of work on a free weekend or three if you need proof. Better yet, watch him rise. Again.