Evangeline Lilly Calls Jeremy Renner’s Recovery After Snowplow Accident a “Straight-Up Miracle”

Evangeline Lilly says Jeremy Renner is still using a wheelchair as he recovers from being run over by a snowplow on New Year’s Day.

In an interview with Access Hollywood promoting her new film Ant–Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the actress opened up about visiting Renner at his home and witnessing his recovery after being asked about their work on the Oscar-winning Hurt Locker.

Lilly, who said she was recently at Renner’s home, called him a “boss” and shared that her fellow Marvel actor has “recovered like a mofo” despite his intense injuries, which resulted in him being hospitalized in early January. Renner was admitted to a Reno hospital intensive care unit where he underwent surgery and was released from the hospital a few weeks later.

“I was just at Jeremy’s house the other night and he was in a wheelchair,” Lilly shared about the actor. “I walked in his house and … I was like why are you mobile? What is happening? I expected to sit at his bedside and hold his hand while he moaned and groaned in pain and wasn’t able to move. He was wheeling himself around, laughing with his friends.”

Lilly went on to describe Renner’s recovery as “a straight-up miracle” and celebrated the actor’s mental and physical fortitude, noting that he’s “incredibly brave and strong.”

“He’s made of something really tough, that guy and you’ve always been able to see that in him,” she added.

Lilly also recounted the “intense” experience of learning the traumatic nature of his New Year’s accident that saw him get run over by a 13,000-pound PistenBully. Renner was injured after attempting to “step up on the track in order to divert the PistenBully or get it stopped” before it could strike his nephew, according to a report from the Washoe County Sheriff’s Department.

The actress shared that in the days since visiting her friend and fellow Marvel star, she’s still having emotional moments about “some of the stuff he told me that he experienced” after he shared “the story of what went on and things he could hear and the things that he could see.”

“He had a near death experience that was highly traumatic, and he was awake for the whole thing. It really has stuck with me,” she continued.

While the accident has been difficult for the actor and tough to see for those who care about him, Lilly expressed appreciation that he survived and is rebounding. “He’s got a journey to go through now. That’s what nightmares are made out of and he lived through it, and he’s on the other side now,” Lilly said. “He is recovering incredibly, and I’m so grateful.”