‘Mayor Of Kingstown’ Producers Had To Make Changes For Still-Recovering Jeremy Renner

Jeremy Renner is back at work on his series Mayor of Kingstown after his well-documented snowmobile accident and recovery.

But he’s still not physically all the way back.

“To try to create some truth and then get the audience to believe it, while I’m just trying to learn to walk again, to put one foot in front of the other and not get up in agony. I’m doing all these things to find my footing on the planet again,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “The idea of going into a fictional world — I have to be honest with you, I had to really consider, Is this something I really want to do?”

The actor’s energy levels aren’t quite what they were. Renner was falling asleep during takes on his first week back. “They go, ‘And action!’ And I was out,” he said. “We realized they worked me too hard, too many hours, too many days in a row. What I’m willing to do is everything, but what I’m able to do is a different thing.”

Producers are accommdating Renner’s limitations. They modified the shooting schedule and carve out time for him to stretch and exercise while on the set.

Renner also remained in Pittsburgh for the four-month shoot instead of flying back and forth from California.

“They have to treat me like treat me like I’m a child actor. The mayor of Kingstown is now like a 14-year-old,” he joked.

Renner has naturally developed a new outlook on life after his ordeal. He now says he tries to “find sobriety through humor. I was always looking for a joke to crack because I know it requires timing and [the ability] to read the room. And it also just feels good to laugh.”

He added, “I’m alive. I’m walking through life with a smile on my face. And there’s nothing that’s ever going to change that. Nothing. It’s impossible for me to have a bad day.”