Hawkeye star Jeremy Renner has said that the best thing to come from his January 1 near-fatal snow plow accident was the fact that he has finally quit smoking and has a “free calendar” for a year.

In an interview with comedian-host Jimmy Kimmel on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the 52-year-old said, “I quit smoking. I couldn’t imagine quitting smoking, I’d be a wreck of a human but because I almost killed myself I didn’t think about smoking. It was easy peasy.”

Renner, whose Disney+ show Rennervations premiered on Wednesday, suffered a blunt chest trauma and over 35 fractures in his body after a snow plow ran over him on January 1. The actor had to be flown to the hospital in an air ambulance and underwent treatment in intensive care for several months.

“Was this a publicity stunt?” Kimmel jokingly asked Renner. “Absolutely,” he replied soon after receiving a standing ovation from the audience on the show that went live on Tuesday.

“Now if there was any question as to who the toughest Avenger was, that’s settled now. Forget Downey, forget Hemsworth, forget these guys, it’s you, you’re the guy.” Kimmel said, saluting the actor’s spirit for surviving such a brutal accident.

“That was a very, very bad way to start the year… I got lucky in a lot of ways. I’m happy to be here,” Renner said, recalling the day of the mishap.

The actor explained that he broke “35 or so bones” after being run over by the snow plow. “We kept discovering them as they were going along the critical order of priority, like what form I am going to die from or not.”

Recalling the 45 minutes he lay helpless until an ambulance could come to his rescue, he said, “The one thing I thought about when I was still on the ground before the ambulance even got there. I was thinking of Alex’s experience when he saw me in that condition. I had to consider what his perspective was and it kept happening about everyone’s perspective throughout this entire ordeal.”

Renner also recounted that while he was being taken to the hospital by a helicopter, a paramedic, who drained his lung to avoid suffocation, called a firefighter friend to say that they couldn’t save the actor.

His friends reaching out to him with good wishes and their concern made him realise the severity of the accident, Renner said. “They are terrible actors, they couldn’t hide the fact that I looked awful.”

His upcoming show Rennervations is a four-part documentary series in which Renner will be reimagining decommissioned government vehicles with the help of a team of professional builders to improve the lives of children across the world.

Bollywood star Anil Kapoor and Renner’s Avenger actor Anthony Mackie will be seen alongside him on the show.

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