I’LL NEVER FORGET the moment I heard about Jeremy Renner’s accident. It was New Year’s Day 2023, and a news alert popped up on my phone stating the acclaimed actor and star of many of my favorite films and series had been severely injured when he’d been run over by a gigantic snowplow. At that point, no one knew if he would survive. He was in critical condition in a California hospital with massive injuries. I was stunned and saddened, imagining that if he even survived, his career as an Oscar nominated actor was over.

Fast forward eight months later, and I’m sitting across from Jeremy in a West Hollywood hotel, asking him about his new partnership with Sweet Grass Vodka, an award-winning South Carolina spirit. Looking at him, you’d never know he had broken 30 bones—including eight crushed ribs— and had a collapsed lung and a punctured liver. Prior to the interview, Jeremy had spent more than an hour being photographed by renowned celebrity photographer John Russo, going from several floors of the hotel to different locations, heading back to our staging hotel room to change looks in between.