It’s another birthday in a Ferrari with Mr. Jeremy Renner. Theoretical studies include: chutzpah, surrender, divine intervention, and the perfect parking spot. Grab your underwear from the sauna… it’s an all-new SmartLess. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to new episodes ad-free and a whole week early.
You know what I started eating for breakfast? Just almonds. That's it. Just almonds? Yeah, just almonds. That's it. Literally. Yep.
Are you really eating just almonds for breakfast?
Yeah, just almonds and maybe a yogurt thing.
Okay, well, so now it's also a yogurt thing? Might want to take the just off the top of that. Welcome to Smart List.
Hey, Cool Dad, you got the long-sleeve shirt on underneath the short-sleeve shirt today.
Very 90s. It's a cold day for... So then why don't you just wear a long-sleeve golf shirt? No, I don't have a long-sleeve golf shirt. So I have this, and if I want to, I could take it out.
Why don't you wear your short-sleeve golf shirt and just put a sweater over the top of it? Instead of doing the cool dad thing.
I am. I've got a sweater and I'm going to have a shell because it's kind of rainy and it's very unusually cold for Los Angeles. It's really nice out. And I'm teeing off at 1230.
Wait, Tracy bought you both golf shirts. She did?
Yeah. They're here at the house. Oh, great. Love her. Did she buy you anything? She did. Driving gloves for the golf cart?
Yeah. She got me a new set of clubs. So I'll see you guys later.
You don't want to know who I'm playing with today. I'm surprised you didn't ask me.
Paul. You're playing with Paul.
Paul. You're playing with Paul. I'm playing with Paul, but guess who else? Who you got? You got Paul, our buddy from Toronto. Paul M, we'll call him. Paul McLeese. And then we'll have... I got a real friend of the show. Danny Dees. Danny Dees. Danny Dees. Ah, I love him. The nicest man in... The greatest guy ever in finance.
Yes, yes. Sure. In many categories. And then...
Our JB, our buddy. You're going to play five, huh? Football legend, Gareth Bale.
Gareth's in town. You're going to play five today? Yeah.
No, it's me and Paul, Dan, and Gareth.
Oh, sorry. I'm not great with math. Evidently. So I'm very excited. I'm doing a home game today, recording from Los Angeles for the first time in a while. It feels nice. I've got a microphone on a stand now, you know, instead of a... It's just I'm not comfortable with the New York setup.
What if you came home, you've been away for a couple weeks, and then you just looked around and you just started to notice, like, some of my stuff was there?
Yeah.
Your underwear's in the sauna. Yeah. That would be awful. That's disgusting. And you just notice Amanda's wearing an oversized shirt to bed, and you're like, hey, is that Will's shirt?
Well, you know what? We're about a minute from that. I know. I know. Well, guys, before I get into my guest here, I heard something recently, a description of a podcast that we'll never be lucky enough to have a description like this, I think. It's a show about people with more balls than a bowling alley.
That's Knoxville said that.
Knoxville said it. It's called Pretty Sure I Can Fly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The Johnny Knoxville host with Elna Baker. From This American Life. From This American Life. It's about these people that do things that have far more courage than the three of us put together would ever even dream of having. Well, thanks a lot.
Right. And unlike ours, Pretty Sure I Can Fly is educational and inspiring. Yeah.
Exactly. Yeah, you're not going to learn a whole lot here, but we hide it right there in the title.
Yeah, it's a great podcast. Yeah, it's worth checking out.
Anyway, Pretty Sure I Can Fly by Smartless Media is out now with Johnny Knoxville and Elna Baker. So punch it into your nearest podcast playing machine and enjoy.
Yeah.
All right, huge apologies to our guests. This has been much too long here for the Regis and Kathy Lee chatter. Here comes our guest. Sadly, even though I'm in Los Angeles, I still have not written an intro. Mostly, though, because I just love this guy. I don't need to write an intro for him. I know him. He's a buddy of mine.
I think he's a buddy of both of yours as well, but I'm closer with him, okay?
Okay.
we'll see i'm uh i'm a big big fan of his work he's an enormous movie star global um but you know and even just bigger uh all-time great guy uh he's got he's got some interesting things to tell us uh i i know you're gonna love this hour everybody ladies and gentlemen it's hollywood's jeremy renner jeremy come on out there he is look at Hollywood's Jeremy Renner. What's going on?
This guy's a major movie star. You guys better tighten it up. Look at that. What's happening?
What's up, man? I wish we were all together, actually. I know, right? I haven't seen some faces on the screen, but it's nice to hear you guys.
Jeremy, you know where we're all together? Right here.
Right here in the heart. Right here in the heart. I didn't see where you were pointing. I just realized something.
I had to reboot my computer right before we started. All my questions are gone, but that's okay. Oh, I can start.
I can start.
No, yeah, you go ahead.
Yeah, Jared, first of all. Welcome. Yeah, welcome. You look great. Look at the guns already. The guns are ready. I mean, crazy. Yeah. You're looking great. I follow you on Instagram as well, and I love all your positivity. Wait, what? Really? Yeah. I love all the positive comments.
You're always so warm and thankful and grateful to your fans and everybody with all the support, with all the tragedy that you've had. And you're doing so great. It's so good to see you.
Well, yeah, you're busy. Mayor of Kingstown's out now, right? It started June 2nd, I think. Yes? It's coming out June 2nd, yeah. Well, when this airs, it'll be out. So unbelievable start to the season there, Jeremy.
Yeah, way to go. June 2nd. Back on June 2nd, the show came out. Season three. The first time I ever saw you, I just moved to Los Angeles. And I start, I don't know if you like, we can cut this if you don't want to talk about it. But I watched this reality show called The It Factor. And it was like one of the first reality shows ever.
And you were one of the actors they followed around to auditions and see about your career. And I was, I loved the series. And I had another friend in it as well. And you, I remember you getting the, and you had to pick between the two or one of the two. And I was like, oh my God, this guy's going to be so huge. And we're watching it in real time, you going on auditions and really going.
Yeah, that was a really random thing. I actually ended up doing that show because I did Dahmer already. And we shot that movie in two weeks for like $100,000. So I didn't know what was going to happen with this tiny little movie. So I did it to kind of promote that. But then in,
it turned into like this little Cinderella story because that movie came out and then I got like, you know, William Morris, all these things happened. And then, like you said, the audition for SWAT and all these other movies started coming as like this sort of Cinderella story for a breaking actor, you know, in Hollywood.
Yeah, and that we watched it with, like we were along for the ride with you. It was really cool. I don't know that anybody would do that today. Do you think anybody, that show would work? I don't know.
It'd be hard to kind of catch that. Does anybody know when... you're gonna break or have any sort of, right?
Yeah, but I mean, think about all those things over the years where they've tried to, like, get behind this or whatever, but to actually lock on to somebody, to an actor, and then have it pay off and actually become a big movie star is so... The odds are so high.
And then like months later, it was like, Jeremy Renner, you were just a huge star and have remained since. So it was really exciting.
You know, our buddy Sam Jones did a great documentary on Wilco called... Trying to Break Your Heart. Trying to Break Your Heart, yeah. And the cameras were with Wilco while they were making Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or Foxtrot Hotel, whatever it is. And the label dropping them because it was too challenging to listen to. And then they went to a different label or made their own. I can't remember.
But then it ends up winning the Grammy for best album of the year, I think. And, like, I couldn't believe that cameras were there for that whole thing. It sounds like this is something similar.
Yeah, you catch a little lightning in a bottle, you know?
Yeah, but, I mean, building off of that, Jeremy, I mean... Buddy, watching your career just explode right out of the gate, and it has not stopped yet. I mean, you know.
Well, first of all, Hurt Locker was just phenomenal. Yeah. And, you know, and everything you've done since. But that was like the thing. I remember just watching that and being like, who's this fucking dude is?
Who's this motherfucker who's taking all of our chops? He's just crushing.
Were you always so discerning from an early age in your career to be able to pick what gave you the strength to say no to certain things and not freak out about your paycheck and your rent?
Yeah, yeah. I don't know where exactly that comes from. I know for me, it was being very clear and focused on what I wanted. and also what I didn't want. Early on, like I had did a lot of comedy stuff and I'm like, God, it wasn't trying to go down that road. And I ended up, that's why Domino was a great turning point for me to kind of go into darker sort of deeper sort of,
character roles, and I just was just kind of clear. And then if I didn't connect to it, there's an easy no, no matter how much money. I've turned down more money than I'll ever make in life because I never did something for money. That's great. And you have to be okay with yourself in that. In order to say no to money, like mind you,
I mean, I think even during that It Factors show, I was turning down a lot of money and I had no power. I had no running freaking water. I thought you meant Hollywood power. But I'm living on $5 a month to eat. Like it's yum yum donuts. You know, you get like 13 donut holes, 14 donut holes for 99 cents. I'm crushing those for two weeks. You know, donut hole a day. It's brutal, dude.
But, you know, that when you know you're... Sean's pants are getting crowded right now. You know your limits, right? You know you're allowing yourself to go. It's like, all right, well, I don't have to say yes to something just for money. And so it gives me the power in the ball to note things.
Yeah.
I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
So Hurt Locker happens, you get the Academy Award nomination, and is there then a waterfall of really great options for you that become somewhat problematic because you can't do them all? How do you go about picking through all the great stuff you're looking at then after that?
I feel like the calendar filled up pretty quickly. I don't know. What was next? Was the town next? There's a town, yeah, was next. Was it Mission Impossible? There was Mission Impossible. Avengers was booked, but it was shot later. And then it was Bourne. And then there was Hansel and Gretel. And then there was Mission Impossible. So it was like all that happened probably within –
you know six months so those and so they're all for the most part franchises if you will so like i'm kind of kind of booked up and so they all got scheduled so your next basically your three four years five years is booked yeah it was like four four years was yeah jammed up i i was i was gone for for four years wow how did you deal with that with with being away from home living out of out of a suitcase i mean that's all and all the fame too like that transition talk to us about that
Well, it's actually interesting because, you know, I was kind of very excited to have the opportunities. And by the time, Bourne was the last thing that kind of came my way. And I had already signed on to Avengers. That's, you know, how many a decade of your life. You have to sign on for it. It doesn't mean you're going to do it, but you sign on for it, right?
I'm going to be 50 years old in fucking tights. Right, yeah.
so that that's what i was having a conversation with with the team right so i'm like am i doing this am i really doing this yeah and then same with um mission impossible you know i talk with tom's like all right well we're gonna do three of these i'm like okay well there's i'm so my whole decade's booked for the most part right and then born comes around and it's like oh wow i really creatively obviously love to do this yeah i love there's involved love with with matt um he what he did with it and
But I had to really pause and say, let me think about this here. I'm kind of jammed up already. And this is also on the face of the thing too, kind of different than Mission Impossible. It's much more Tom and this type of thing. So it was a quick 24-hour sort of thinking session on it, but I had to take pause on it. And all of that's very exciting, but I knew I gave up a decade of my life.
And yeah, and Jeremy, were you worried that when you make these decisions, did you ever go down there? Because I wonder if I would go like, yeah, today I want to do it, but how am I going to feel five years from now if I'm locked in? We don't know that. We don't know the things.
You can consider it, right? That's all you can do is consider it. And it's like, you're an idiot to say no to these things. They're amazing opportunities. They're all quality franchises, if you will.
But at what cost?
Yeah, at what cost? It will be something that will be determined later, you know? Yeah. And I knew I was going to miss a lot, but I knew that there was an end to it, right? Yeah, right. So I'm like, let me go, let me give it a go. And yeah, don't get me wrong, there were times where most of the time it was amazing. Most of the time it was really great. You hadn't become a dad yet, right?
Yeah, I wasn't a dad yet. And so that's why I can have a really good time. I was a single guy. I can just go out and just focus on work and see the world, right? And get paid to be in shape and all these amazing things. Amazing things, right? It was fantastic. But I did miss my family that I'm very deeply close with. It's very large. So I had like four birthdays in a row with my assistant.
I'm on January 7th, and he was January 8th. And he's exactly a decade younger than me. That's so funny. So we just celebrated our birthdays together like in a Ferrari in Abu Dhabi. Going to an F1. Yeah. That's great. I mean, you know. Oh, my God.
Wow.
That's an episode of Will & Grace or something.
Oh. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we actually shot it.
I don't know. It was a great thing, but you don't know what will come down the road. It's a wonderful blessings. And, you know, the perspective to take from that, I mean, I'd do the same thing all over again, you know.
Yeah. I don't have the energy to do it now. Right. But the schedule of those huge, huge films with a lot of stunts and special effects, the budget on those allows for a much slower movement, pacing as far as knocking down pages each day. Was that a big transition for you coming from even – I would imagine the Hurt Locker was something that was not as highly budgeted as these things.
What is that like, that snail's pace? Because sometimes on those stunt films like Mission Impossible, the degree of difficulty is just astronomical and the stunt complexity and stuff where you're only shooting like – You know, what the audience sees is maybe 10 seconds. It might take you a week to shoot that. Or three weeks. Yeah, yeah.
A commission possible like that. The whole Burj Khalifa.
How do you keep your focus and whatnot during that?
Well, initially, I think the... The main difference is just craft services.
Yeah.
It's a bit different.
Yeah, nice trailer.
Yeah, it's in the trailer size. But yeah, it does take longer. You know, a lot of it is like in the prep too for anything that's not physical. When it's those physical movies, there's so much... you know, it's months and months of physical prep before you go do it.
Getting in shape.
So then while you're doing it, you're training like an athletic team or an athletic sport. Yeah.
And you have to treat it such. What was your favorite way in which to get in shape? Were you into the boxing? Were you into cardio? Were you into just cross-training? I'm sure it's been a bunch of things. You've been in shape for a long time. Yeah, yeah.
I think it depends on what the role really requires. Most of them, you know, like... For instance, like the Bourne Legacy, that required the most physical. And so we had to train, like, all sorts of mixed martial arts and judo and just all the different things, man.
Did you have those, like, training mishaps where you end up getting clocked in the face by the guy or you clock somebody in the face while you...
I might have smashed a dude or two.
Now, when you go over to something like American Hustle or Arrival, is that it must be nice where you don't have to wait around for a bunch of stunt stuff and effect stuff and you're doing much more sort of... Well, it's a different kind of acting on those films. Yeah. Did you love that transition?
Yeah. Well, I mean, it's just sort of that's kind of more in the decision making to do the job. You know, it's those are the easy ones with great directors and great writing and great characters. You can go in with a lot more cerebral, much more emotional context.
Right.
Characters and a lot more people to work with. And the other ones like from the Avengers and born and all those mission possibles, there's It's much more about the stunts and the physical stuff, which is fun. It's just a different muscle to use. And ideally, you're sort of switching back and forth, right? I think so. I mean, to keep it all interesting, right?
I'm on the third season of Mirror of Kingstown, right? I've never done that before. Repeated the same character. You've done an Ozark and you've done shit most of your life.
And the pace of that, though, is much faster, right? That's enjoyable that there's momentum, yeah? Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. There's something interesting about it. There's a controlled chaos in television today especially. We shoot like a film, like a 10-hour film in a third of the time. It's crazy. We'll be right back.
And now back to the show. How were you able to struggle through the really – outrageously poor direction from a guy like Ben Affleck. How did you get through the town? It's just a miracle, the results that end up on the screen on his films. Was it, well, just walk us through it.
Yeah, yeah, he's great, man. I remember meeting with Ben on that. That's the first time I met him. I think my first meeting with him, sitting across, my first question to him was like, how are you going to direct this thing and act and star in it?
Yeah.
I mean, you're kind of an okay actor. I mean, how are you going to direct and act in this thing? Kind of fucking with him. He's a beast.
Yeah.
And he's so damn smart, man. Working with him was so, so great. And I really learned how – I mean, he gave me so much freedoms. I mean, he says, we're not going to do dialects. I've never been to Boston in my life. Yeah. Don't know anything about it, right? And he's like, we're not going to do any dialect coaches. I'm like, okay, great. Well, what the fuck am I going to do then?
I'm like, all right. He introduced me to a bunch of people that just got out of prison. Yeah. And a bunch of armed robbers and all this shit, bank robbers. So I just hung out with these guys in the bars for a couple weeks in town. And then –
i kind of found the character and found what i was going to do oh that's no way that's cool yeah yeah yeah so it was it was but if we didn't shoot in boston i would have been royally screwed yeah um yeah but thank god thank god we were there because all all of my access to what i needed was there and uh and then he just wanted to be so smart and uh he just kind of let me do my thing and uh
At first, he would start to mouth my lines as I was acting with him. And I'm like, I had to turn my head. I'm like, I'm going to smash this motherfucker. I'm going to smash this fucker. But it only pissed me off. They'd get me more in the mood with this guy. Ah. But it was like the very first scene we shot. And I don't think he did it after that anymore. But yeah, he was great, man.
He really was so great. He was working his butt off, man. But I really was, I fell in love with him and have so much respect for him. He's just one of the smartest guys I know, actually.
He's really, really smart. You know, it's funny. You watch those movies, specifically those Boston movies, and if you ask people from Boston one of the things that they hate, and you guys did such a good job in that movie. And I've talked about this with Matt before, too.
You watch other movies where people do Boston accents, and I'm not going to name them because there are a lot of really big names, really famous actors who've done big Boston movies, and the accents are fucking terrible. And people from Boston hate it. They get pissed off. And if these people had any idea, and I'm talking big, shiny names.
Tell us what one of the names sounds like.
It sort of rhymes with... Dude, dude, let me say this, dude. Fucking, you're not going to get me fucking classic baby trying to get me to say something about these fucking... No, you know what? I fucking, I used to work, I worked for fucking Dead and Fire Department. Fucking, my brother works for the fucking Edison. Shut the fuck up, dude. No, fuck you.
Wait, Jeremy, how did you become Jeremy Renner, the guy we know today? Going back to the first thing we talked about today, when I was like, oh, my God, I watched you, and you coming up, and you had all this kind of chutzpah to just want to be great and not worry about anything else but the art of it. Where did that come from? Were you a kid that was inspired by something?
I got to say, Sean, you've got a lot of chutzpah to use the word chutzpah. Chutzpah was the extra chutzpah. Where do you get a, I mean, you know.
Johnny White Bread over here. Go ahead, Jeremy. Fire department.
I didn't really discover acting until I was in college.
Really?
Yeah, yeah, and in theater. So I went in like with a criminology sort of idea I was going to study or computer science or some shit and then took an elective. And that's, I think I told you, I might have mentioned this to you, Jason, when we had dinner at Downey's, but I saw an elective
it when i was signing up for the courses and acting was one of them like i'll do this speech class i'll try this acting thing the only thing i that popped in my brain what I knew about acting was Michael J. Fox and fucking you, Jace, right? Because he shows these fucking family ties and all these goddamn things. It's the only thing I knew. It's what I watched, right? Growing up.
I mean, all those things. So I'm like, fuck, I'll try it. I'll try that thing. And went into it. This guy can do it. Yeah, this fucker can do it. I can do that shit. No, but that's just kind of what I watched with the kind of, I guess, you know, Related to. And then anyway, fell in love with theater and then started studying theater and psychology and just ran from there. Wow.
Which is what I'm saying. So I was like 18, 19. And yeah, just stuck with that.
Well, it's funny, because you are such a sort of actor's actor, too. You know what I mean? Like, you've got, like... Very natural. Yeah, very natural, and you've got this thing, and you're very serious, and you can tell that you take your craft really seriously, and that you're very, you know, everything's well thought out. Nothing's by mistake. You're not just hoping to get lucky in a take.
You know what I mean? Yeah, and so it's funny that it kind of came to you later, because it seems like it's really such a... It comes so naturally.
Well, I mean, that just comes, I think that's the psychology sort of part of it. And you have to, I think there's a self-awareness and a confidence that, you know, that comes from doing stage. Yeah. You see a lot of, when people are stage actors, there's a, they hold it in their body a bit more. They're not just doing a scene or a thing. They kind of immerse in their body and spirit.
Because you have to do it for an hour and a half, two hours on stage, right? Yeah. really embody it longer than we do when we're doing television and film.
Yeah, that's a good point. Was music something that was sort of pulling at you as well? Did you have to sort of make a decision with yourself whether you were going to, you know, kind of put all your weight behind one or the other?
No, no, I never considered music as a career. It's always a form of therapy, artistic. Bit of a hobby? Yeah, well, that's so much a hobby. I don't really believe in hobbies. I feel like you either do something or you don't. Right. I don't have fucking time for hobbies. That's hysterical. You know what I mean? Very good. I don't have time to just dip my toe in the water.
I'm not taking a fucking bath here in life, right? Yeah. It's dipping my toe in it. It's not happening. So I'm going to do something. Yeah, you do it or you don't, right?
Yeah, Jason, you dumb fuck.
Yeah, you're right. I didn't want to be a player of music, right? I didn't want to be a guitar player or a drummer, which I am those things, or a piano player. I don't have the time or patience or even excellence or skill set to be able to do that. What I did want to do is be able to play instruments to compose songs to having a form of expression. Music is a wonderful form to express.
And it's wonderfully shared as well. You can't really share a poetry so much as you can with music. It's more uniting in its experience. And so I love music for that. And that'll always be near and dear to me and very important to me in my life. But I don't want some record label saying, you've got to do this, you've got to do that. I'm like, no. where I have to do something.
I do it for the purity of it for me and the expression of it for me.
Do you have time to still play music with Sons of the Pioneers?
No, no. I just do stuff in the studio.
Yeah, okay.
Do stuff in the studio at this point. And, you know, like I did for the... from after the accident, I put together an EP of a collection of songs that were about their life, death, and recovery of this last sort of 16 months of my life or a year of my life. And I put out the... the seven songs on the anniversary of this year. Wow, that's really heavy, man. I didn't know that.
I want to hear about that. Yeah, me too. And can you talk a little bit about that? I mean, obviously, we all, you know, heard the devastating news when the accident happened. And then, of course, that you sort of pulled through and obviously pulled through with colors now. But what a time in your life. And just walk us through that a little bit, if you could.
Yeah, and I'd like to know just personally to add to that is like what do you – it's a common question, I'm sure, but what do you see differently now that you're on the other side of it?
We could have waited for him to answer the first part. I guess to answer that is like – Yeah, no, don't start at the end like Sean's asking you to. Let's go at the beginning. Let's help Tracy out in Wisconsin and tell her what you were doing and what happened and action.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, look, it's – It's probably one of the greatest things that's happened to me in my life.
Yeah.
Wow. And it's not just because it happened to me. It happened to, well, we're talking about it now because you guys are aware of it. And so there's a lot of people around this planet. Yeah. It became a very personal experience that happened on my property. I was trying to save my nephew from being ran over by this snowplow and snowcat. But it's turned into not such a private experience.
I didn't know why. I was already on life support. And while everybody else was becoming aware of this incident. And then I wake up from it. I'm like, why is everybody freaking out? I'm fine. I'm going to get out of this hospital in two days. I'm walking out of here. It'll be no problem. Yeah. At least that's what the drugs are telling me. I must have been high as a kite thinking that, right? Yeah.
But... There's a unifying understanding of or what was about to become knowledge of who I am as a man, a brother, a father, and a person. Not famous for what I did for a living. You know, I'm not Hawkeye anymore. I'm like, oh, this is Jeremy Renner and he overcame this incident or is overcoming this incident. And there's something really fucking gratifying about that where that changed my life.
Because I never liked being a celebrity. I never liked being adored for it. People call me Hawkeye, whatever. But being known for who you are as a human is really fucking cool.
Something you did completely on your own. I mean, obviously the help of all the medical staff.
And people treat you different. They treat me differently now. They don't treat me like a fan of Hawkeye or whatever it might be. Yeah. Yeah. They're like, you know, here's an example. I, on March, um, like two months, three months after the accident, I took my daughter to, uh, the magic mountain in LA, right. In Valencia. Yeah. To ride all these roller coasters. I got cleared.
Go home and write these things. But it was like, I had to take the little cart around, the little golf cart thing you have to drive around, you know, because I couldn't walk very far. I could maybe walk like, you know, 15, 20 feet. So I had to drive this cart around. But everywhere I went, And it wasn't like I was being quiet about it, you know? I was just being me.
I had a boombox I brought, blasting music, thinking I'm having a good time. But I go up the line, right? They let me sort of go up in the front of the line. But people were like this Rudy, like slow clapping. And like, we're glad you're okay. It was such like a wonderful camaraderie. Like normally that situation would be like, oh, let me take something from you. I deserve a selfie. I want this.
I want this. Touch me, whatever. Now it's like much more, there's a level of like... Give. Yeah, it was... That's a wonderful shift that happened.
Yeah, I think that because you've given so many people so much pleasure through your art and through what you do, that that applause is thank you for that, and we're so glad that the guy that we love is doing great. It's really cool.
But also it's that feeling... Just getting that love, right, feels so good.
Yeah, it made me believe in goodness in people that I didn't fucking think existed. Yeah, I love that. In a big, big way, right? Not just a group of people and not just a couple people in my hometown or my neighborhood. This is like in a pretty global way that this is happening.
I think people are, for the most part, people are good. Yeah, I know.
I believe that too. I just don't think they're in the right situations to have that come out.
Right, but you had spent so much time being somewhat... I don't know if I'm using this word correctly, but somewhat objectified, you know, which is kind of baked into the cake. It's what we do. We all have public jobs, and there's certainly nothing to be resentful about with that. But at your level, I'm sure you just...
saturated with you being sort of, uh, approached and acknowledged as, as, as an object. Um, and, and, and that there's a bit of an ownership from the audience because of that. And, and basically I can understand that, but this was a different kind of acknowledgement. It was, you know, we're, we're actually people. We're not looking at Jeremy as a, as a commodity.
We're looking at him as a human being and we could have died just like he almost died. All
Well, also they became allies. We were equals and they were my ally. They became human. It's everyone, every thought or prayer, if you will, is something I actually needed. I needed everything to recover.
Right. And on Instagram, when I saw you post that video of you running, like, It was like one day you were, the accident happened and it seemed like a week later, but I'm sure it was six months or a year later, you're jogging uphill this steep like driveway. I was like, oh my God, I can't even do that. And I didn't get hit by a snowmobile.
Like, you know what I mean? Well, but hang on, Sean, what if we put like a stir fry thing right at the top of it?
That's a good incentive. You'd get up that hill.
I could make it. Yeah, you would. Jeremy you told me something at that dinner and I hope you're comfortable relaying it on this it was a story about you know to sort of make it sort of the stupid description of it of basically seeing the light and and how there is a there is an absolute
similarity, if not identical type of experience that is repeated around the world from people that get this close to death. And the way you related to me was in a way that was so sort of
um encouraging about possibly what that moment is to the point where i think i don't want to put words in your mouth but it sounded like you no longer have as much a fear of death as you did before and after hearing that story i too share i'm not looking forward to that moment but i'm not as fearful of it as i once was so to the extent you're comfortable please um
yeah yeah for me i think most people have uh i have a different you know relationship with fear first and foremost because i worked on it every day something i was afraid of for a decade i just i just don't have a lot of fear in my life i certainly wasn't afraid of death but you can think that and believe that but it's a confirmation now i found there's a lot of confirmations when you're tested to your limits into your death
and come back, there's a lot of confirmations that come out of that. Because I can believe in XYZ, but now there's proof in the pudding because I went there. And yeah, the exhilarating peace that happens in leaving this body with these limitations of spinning on this rock and this body with air and gravity and all this bullshit. But when you... It's an exhilaration and it's just a freedom.
So you remember feeling that? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Feeling that? Really? Yeah, yeah. And I take that feeling with me all the time now. Wow. You can't really put a visual... to it because there's no time, place or space. It's all sort of a continuum. Every human, every exchange that's happened is happening simultaneously all at once. It kind of has a little bit of that arrival kind of vibe in it.
Everything's all at once and it's a continuum and it's fucking exhilarating as it is peaceful at the same time. It's the greatest way I can describe it.
Now, you really did see the light that everybody talks about, yeah?
It's a, yeah, to me it's a sort of fibrous, like a muscle fibrous sort of connectivity to all, it's all energy, right? So I guess that's the feeling that it is. I can't even say it's a visual because I don't feel like any of that's there.
Wow. Now, isn't it true that like, well, you were telling me or something about like you can, science has discovered a way to create that with certain, drugs or circumstances where you can, that same, do you know what I'm talking about? Like that same light.
Will, were you trying to sell Sean something out of the back of your van at that moment?
No. No, I was saying that if you go, if you go, you know where, you know, well, there's a guy, J-Rock, I told you about.
He's got that DMT hookup.
Yeah, and he's got that DMT, and if you... J-Rock. J-Rock, he'd go for a weekend. He does a week, a weekend, he does a weekend if you take the 118.
I knew a guy named, I knew a guy named Earthquake that would sell me J-Rock. And we will be right back. And back to the show.
Jeremy, in all seriousness, you know, that is, thank you for sharing that.
Yeah, that's really fascinating.
Because that reminded me of some of the specifics of what you were saying there. And it is, you know, I don't know if encouraging is the right word, but it does confirm for me some of the things I hope
that moment is and and well you have to understand too this right your your body like the accident right it is it could be the most excruciating pain that someone could go through right it's just 38 broken bones my eyeballs out of my head i'm looking at my eye i'm looking at my twisted legs in all these things but i'm like the pain is like really not that bad your body kind of shuts it
shuts it down, it's like overload, right? It's just a small part in the front of your brain where you feel pain, right? So you can kind of control that as well. And so it's interesting. Fuck, I got lost because I got so many from that accident in my brain. I get a little sidetracked.
Well, so the pain is overwhelming, but the brain then has – it shuts that down. But it is also still working and has an opportunity to experience the other stuff that you're going through, which it sounds like this was the big thing that it chose to deal with, which was this opportunity to transition to whatever – happens after the body stops working anymore.
And you're sort of experiencing what that moment is. And do you remember having a decision to make? Were you in control of whether you were going to go forward or return back?
I mean, I was in control of my breath. And that's all I had to focus on. Because if you can't breathe, then nothing else is going to matter. So I had to focus on exhaling so I could then inhale. And I had a popped lung and all this stuff I didn't know.
And the thing's still on top of you right then, right?
No, it rolled completely over me. And then it... Yeah. Wow. Yeah, it was brutal. Right. But, yeah, just conscious breath. Conscious breath was pretty important. And, you know, like you said, there's nothing to freaking worry about at the end of the day. You know, and I can confirm that. We all have something to look forward to, whether we use God to get there, right, or whatever it is.
But it's something to look forward to, and it's blissful, and it's beautiful. And, yeah. There's accountability and responsibility that comes along with it. And you take it all with you, man.
It's amazing. I love that.
You're connected. You're connected all the time to all you want to be connected to.
To everyone on this planet.
Yeah, yeah. It is all one thing. It's no fucking joke. It's all energy.
Jeremy, did you have... I mean, this shift in perspective is... remarkable i'm sure and i can see the weight of it and and i can't appreciate it the way that you can obviously but has this i imagine and you kind of touched on it but talk a little bit about what that shift in perspective has done for you in practical terms on a day-to-day level yeah i think the clarity um
i think everyone is conspiring to keep my life lean and keep the white noise out it's um i feel that life is a lot easier even though on paper it's it's much more difficult to not to spend hours just so i can walk every day you know i have to do all this stuff still Um, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm in, I'm in, I'm in good shape, but it's too, I don't have pain.
Um, I have to do a bunch of stuff and who cares? I'm still walking. Right. They told me I wasn't going to walk, but I think, um, my life being so lean and, and it's, uh, been the best gift.
Yeah. I imagine you don't sweat the small stuff anymore.
No, yeah, it wasn't really a guy that did. But, again, it's one of those sort of confirmation kind of things. Right. The things that were working for me before, I really just doubled down on. And whether, like, spending time with those. It's like you, Jason, how much you love your family and want to spend time with your family.
Mm-hmm.
And asking for help. Now I'm really good at asking for help because, Jesus Christ, I needed all the help I can get. That's great. So I have no problem asking for help. And I spend so much time on myself and self-care. Look, I have hydrogen water and all these shots. I got liposomal glutathione right here. I got all this stuff. I'm doing so many good things for my body.
So I honor this vessel that I'm living in right now.
That's so great.
Like, life is just wonderful because, again, it's so clean and simple. I love that.
Sean feels the same. Sean, you got a lot of help from the Frito-Lay company. Yeah. They do a lot of work with you. Well, they know what I need. They make the bags a little bit easier to open. The McConnell Ice Cream Company also is one of your... Haagen-Dazs. Haagen-Dazs. Haagen-Dazs, sure.
But Jerry, you know what? You know, the whole thing, such an inspiration to never give up, to keep going, to take the worst things in life that come after you and you come out on top. All of it. I mean, it really, I saw, I'm saying, I saw that video. I was like, God, he can come through that. I got to get off my ass and just take better self of my vessel.
Yeah, yeah. Well, you will one day. Jeremy, talk a little bit, if you will, about, because you kind of mentioned it about this sort of this creative, this sort of we're all connected, this sort of collective consciousness that is a lot more sort of real and visceral than we think, and rather just an idea in your relationship with...
maybe God even, or higher power, or whatever that is, where do you land on all that stuff? And you guys too, I don't know.
Yeah, well, my dad is a theologist, and so I studied all religions growing up. Oh, wow, that's cool.
I love that.
I've been in tents with snakes, and I've been in, you know, all of them.
Wow.
Studied them all, and I found them all interesting. Organized religions never end up being my bag, but I think because of it. Yeah. But I do believe that in anything that... Believe in anything that makes you a better person, a more thoughtful person, a conscious person. Yeah. I think that's great. Amen. So I've got no problems with religion. In general.
So I land, look, at some point in my recovery, I know I had to give up my body to the EMTs and the people when I was on the ice for 45 minutes, right? Just struggling for my next breath, and that's where I passed. And they had to jam a needle in my chest and do all that stuff, inflate my lung. I gave myself up. to them just have to work on whatever they had to do to get me to survive.
But I think there's all, because also those, I knew the guy that was working on me and he called one of my best friends who's a firefighter. He says, you're going to want to get to the hospital because I just took off on a MedEvac flight to the hospital. And he called my buddy who's a firefighter. He's like, I just worked on Jeremy. I just want to say we did the best we could.
And he's like, there's no way Smoker's going to make it. So he went to the hospital and said, you want to get there, go be with his sister or whatever and You know, when those guys say, you don't have a chance, right? So I think there's some fucking divine intervention is the shortest. I don't know what it is, guys. I don't know. There is no answer to that.
I think the divine intervention is fucking thoughts and prayers, if you will, from others. It's the will of those doctors. They're like, look at this motherfucker. We're going to work extra hard. Or die, whatever. Like, my will, right? My will is fucking... It's strong, let me just say that.
And I think there's others... That energy goes into others that would help... All those EMTs and the firefighters that were there saving my ass, and Sheriff's Department, all those guys that were there to save my ass, right? All connected. Yeah, it's all connected, man. So as hard as I was working, I think that bleeds into others, and they worked harder, and I think every...
you know, flower that came in, every nurse that, you know, changed a bit, whatever the heck it is, man, that's all like love and all working towards surviving. And let that be divine, the collective divinity of humans, right? Which I think is fucking brilliant and good. The energy of human.
Yes, I agree.
And I think that's what the divine intervention is ultimately. I don't think it's some God or some guy coming down on a carpet or whatever. It's none of these kind of things. I just think it's an energetic thing. And I can define it as love. You know, that's maybe what divine intervention is for me. That helps me survive. I think that fucking continues, right?
Us just sitting here talking about it, I'm sure thoughts of thoughts are swirling in all of our heads as we're talking, right?
Yeah, you make me think about what an incredible opportunity everybody has to plug into that network of communication. connectivity where it is available to all of us and it is labeled different things at different times. Sometimes it's love, sometimes it's religion, sometimes it's collaboration, whatever you want to call it, but we're all here and we all kind of come from the same thing.
And that whole sort of one plus one makes three equation is again, it's available to us all. And sometimes I have days where I've got the courage to plug into it and leave myself open to the input from other people. And some days I don't, you know, and the days that I do have that courage and that openness and that vulnerability and that that humanity sort of draw those days are great for me.
And things, you just feel like you're in a slot and shit just happens. You get the parking spot in front of the building you're going to. You make the green light. It's so true. All of that silly stuff, but I don't think that's coincidence. I think it's, those are the days when you're really open to this community.
But JB, there's also the idea, there's an idea to, first of all, I love plugging into a slot, but I would say, that's just OCD, but But I would say this, I would say, you know, those days when it also... For me anyway, my experience is it's really important to whatever energy I'm putting out there, whatever I'm putting in the world, I'm going to get back.
And what you were saying, like finding the open spot or whatever, if I'm driving on the highway or if I'm driving around Los Angeles, I'm going, look at this asshole and fuck this guy and whatever. Every asshole is going to show up in my experience. But if I surrender, and there's a lot of surrender in what you're talking about, Jeremy. Yes, I love that.
Throughout everything you've said, there's a lot of surrender and giving up. And if I surrender and go, I'm not in that much of a rush. It's not going to make that much. Let the guy go ahead of me. And then you know what starts happening? everything starts opening up. Because if I keep going, fuck, fuck, fuck, and every bad, eventually somebody's giving me the finger on the 405. Guaranteed.
That's a lock. But if I start just opening up and just going, taking my foot off the gas and surrendering, and that goes for every aspect of my life. I find it all the time. I try to do it in little things. It's not easy. I call it like sort of spiritual calisthenics. Just doing things. I'm just putting out good vibes as much as I can.
Sometimes I'll just show up to your house and give you the finger, like when you answer the door.
Yeah, one time Sean woke me up in the middle of the night shaking me. I opened my eyes and he was just giving me the finger and he said, fuck you. Yeah, that's helpful. I love that visual. But you know what I mean? I think that there's a lot to that and I'm feeling like the energy, again, not to sound too freaking hokey, people are going to be like, hey, But, you know, you can feel it.
You've got this kind of vibe that you're putting out there, which is sort of a loving, positive vibe. Yeah. So it's no surprise that that's what showed up in your experience.
And now does that translate into like how you approach, sorry to get back to this stuff, but how you approach work now? Or is it still the same?
Well, I think it's, you know, I was very terrified to get... Because to do like fucking fiction, I'm still trying to live in reality. I'm trying to live, right? So it was a hard line for me to cross.
The shit got real and then your job is to be fake.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's like, wow, man. It was a big stretch. It was very... very challenging for me mentally to get over that hump. And I still struggle with it sometimes. I don't take it super seriously. I'm in a character that I can do very well, and I know the show very well, so it was easy for me to kind of slide back into it. But if it was a very challenging role, I couldn't have taken it.
Not challenging in the sense of, because this movie, the show's challenging, but it's that, if I had to go play Dahmer or something, like something so far from me.
Like the spiritual space.
Yeah, I just don't have the energy for it. I don't have the fuel. I have so much fuel to put into like this reality, this body, all this stuff. I can't just go play make believe right now. because it takes a lot of time to get right here every day just so I can have a positive thought, so I can progress, so I can always keep growing. Well, listen to me.
You need to write books because I'd read page to page.
I am writing one right now, actually.
Oh, you are? Yeah.
I'm writing one right now, and I'm just going to spend the whole summer doing it. Hopefully I can get it out maybe by the year's end or beginning of next year. Amazing. But having experiences like this, I speak to a lot of different people, always something new comes out and I always learn something new in the process and the questions.
Yeah, and it seems like you really light up when you talk about this, which again, like you said, is part of the gift of that happening.
Yeah, it's a wonderful gift.
As you said, it was the best thing that's ever happened to you.
Yeah, yeah, it's wonderful gifts. And it'll be, you know, something passed on, I'll have with you guys forever, right? It'll, our exchanges will always have a basis of this, a wink, a wink to knowing the, to the knowingness of something. Right.
And, and we can laugh at all the jokes you want and fart and do all, you know, go play golf terribly and wherever it is, but we know that there's a, there's an underlying current of,
connectivity to something yes and and it's something beautiful yeah and you've and you've had that experience firsthand and you have very very generously shared that with with not only us but but but the people listening and if they're like me they they they will hold on to it forever because you know our mortality is something that
We can kind of compartmentalize for a while, but if you're on the second half like us guys are, it starts to become a little bit more a part of your thinking day to day. And you've given me a lot more comfort for what the inevitable is. And I really, really appreciate that.
Yeah, man. Yeah, and Jeremy, I really mean it. It sounds cheesy to say it, but thanks for the lessons today, and I mean that. I'm like, wow.
I mean, all the stuff that you're talking about, I'm now going to be, like you said, I'm going to be thinking about it for the rest of my life because people say the same things in different ways, but they don't land all the time, and a lot of the stuff you said today really landed.
Well, thanks, brother. That means it's just a shared experience then, right?
Yeah, for sure.
It's not a lesson. These are just shared experiences.
Yeah, I love this sort of the shift in perspective. It's pretty amazing. As somebody once said, it's really hard to get a new perspective if you can't get perspective. Like, it's like if you can't just allow yourself... It's hard to get it. And anyway, I really feel it from you, man.
It's fucking awesome. And before you go, please do a sequel to Arrival, please. It's called Departure.
That's really funny. Jeremy, thank you so, so much for your time today and your level of... Of transparency with what your experience has been. It's been a real gift. So thank you, buddy. Yeah, man. I love you guys, man. Appreciate the time. Love you too, Jeremy.
You too, brother.
Well done, man. Fucking killer. Thanks, pal. Hope I see you soon, pal. Yes, sir. Thanks, Jeremy. Have a good day. See you, man.
Thank you, dude. All right, my man.
Bye, buddy.
See you guys.
Well, I hope... Enlightening. Yeah, I hope that story, I mean, the whole interview was really enjoyable. But man, I just can't tell you how I have held on to that, what he told me at dinner. And I'm so appreciative that he shared it with all of us today. Because if you're like me, it's kind of, it's just sort of a nice thing to have in your back, you're in your pocket that... It might not.
If you see that train coming. Well, I mean, it's going to happen to all of us. Everything that's born lives to, or what is it? Everything that lives was born to die. Something like that. I think it's a Pink Floyd line, but we're all going. And what is that moment like? I hope it's not terrible. I hope it's not sad. I hope it's not painful. It sounds like it's not.
Yeah. Shit. Yeah, shit. I got some fucking bad. I'm ready. Okay. I know how both you guys die.
What?
Oh, what? How do you know?
Is it painful?
Um, it's interesting. It is a little painful. How do you know this? Have you ever seen, okay, have you, because I just, okay, you remember the movie, you know that story about that Chilean rugby team? Sure, sure, yeah. So you guys are, fuck, it's so crazy. Anyway, you guys end up shipwrecked, you and Sean, the two of you. Shipwrecked? Fucking Sean eats you, dude. What?
Jason me at all?
You guys get shipwrecked and it's just the two of you and a big container of mayo.
But if I eat Jason, Will, how do I die?
Well, you die because he's so malnourished that it ends up poisoning you.
There's no nutritional value at all to my body. And your body goes into a shock. No jokes on me.
Oh, man. Well, I just want to say about Jerry, he was so great. He's a perfect example of following your heart and good things happen, period. You know? Just like, I love that. He's such a good guy. Yeah, he really is.
And honestly, it is true. When you hear him, this is what we've talked about before, which is he's clearly had a shift in like... What validates him as a person is not about what he does for a living, but who he is as a person, and he can separate those things. And it's so true, because it's so easy, especially doing what we do, to peg your...
your feeling of success or success as a human being to what you do. And that that is your wealth. Yeah. And it's not. What he's saying, no, no, the wealth is the... And it's not. It's not. It's the living. It's the relationships that you have with other people. And he said that that connection with other people is really the thing that got him through. So that's pretty... Yeah. Pretty amazing.
Well, that was a nice episode, y'all. Yeah, really nice.
It was real nice.
I'm sorry to learn that my life comes to an end with Sean taking a big bye out of me.
Bye. Bye.
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