Bob Odenkirk has opened up about the frightening aftermath of his 2021 heart attack, revealing that the event completely wiped his memory for an entire week.
The actor earlier explained that he had this experience where he saw his life flash before his eyes, saying he felt a “lingering joy” when he regained consciousness.
However, the experience changed Bob Odenkirk’s perspective as he realized death is an inevitable clause of life.
Bob Odenkirk appeared on the “Inside of You” podcast with Michael Rosenbaum, where he shared details about the 2021 heart attack he suffered while on the set of “Better Call Saul.”
According to Fox News Digital, the 63-year-old actor said that the experience left him with no memory for almost a week, adding that it was his daughter who helped him get his cognitive abilities back.
Speaking about the issue to Rosenbaum, Odenkirk recalled how the experience was even more “dangerous” because he was far away from the set on adherence to COVID-19 protocols and “all the people who would hear someone screaming were across the floor of a giant studio.”
Things were seemingly compounded by the fact that everyone thought his castmates Rhea Seehorn and Patrick Fabian were laughing.
He recalled walking to an exercise bike and started feeling uneasy, telling Seahorn he wasn’t feeling good before everything “turned gray and worse things happened.”
Bob Odenkirk Recalls Being Unable To Remember Anything After Suffering A Heart Attack
Odenkirk was immediately taken to the hospital and underwent surgery the next day, with his family joining him all through. However, he explained that he had no memory of anything until a week after his daughter stepped in.
“My daughter made this dry-erase board that said what happened to me so that I would wake up and see this dry-erase board that: heart, you know, attack, and then to the hospital, and who’s visited me and who’s in town and what day it is because I never had a memory that whole week,” he shared.
Uncertain about what had happened and seemingly confused about his location, he noted he was always asking, “Where are we? Why are you guys at the hospital?”
The Actor Says There’s A Funny Clip Of Him Struggling To Remember Where He Was
The “Breaking Bad” actor said there’s a funny video of him and his wife Naomi took where his kids asked him after his surgery if he knew why he was there.
“And I’m like ‘Cause I heard you guys are here,’” he revealed. “It’s really funny. It’s really, it’s crazy what your brain does. ‘How did you get here?’ ‘I drove here.’”
“You know, like your brain makes up a story about what is going on that suits you,” Odenkirk added about his experience.
The Event Gave The Actor A Fresh Perspective On Life
The event seemingly left a life-changing impression on him as he got to see things from a new perspective.
He admitted that it made him get a new sense of appreciation for the “wonderful things” he has in his world and seemingly helped him with the whole awareness of limited time.”
Odenkirk said it became hard to counteract the feeling of “I’m going to live forever. What movies do I want to make in 30 years?”
“‘Hey man,’” he said he tells himself, “‘you are not making any movies in 30 years. You’re not making them in 10 years. You’re going to be cooked and done. And so, what do you want to do? And how much time do you have left? And how are you going to use it?’”
The “Normal” actor added that it’s hard to look into the mirror and ask himself, “‘I’m 63, you know, my dad lived to 56, you know, I mean, what are you doing with your time? How are you going to use it? How are you going to do the most with it?’”
Bob Odenkirk Felt A ‘Lingering Joy’ Afterwards
Recounting the experience and how Scary it was in a previous interview with Rachel Martin on her “Wild Card” podcast, Odenkirk explained that he didn’t get any out-of-the-world experience like seeing a white flash of light or his life flash before his eyes, or a slideshow of one’s regrets, adding that there was “very little trauma” for him.
However, what he did experience was some sort of “lingering joy” that slowly started slipping away days after he regained consciousness, but then he had to fight and make a mental note of it.
“I have to try to live this way,” he recalled of how he felt. “I have to try to be this – see the world this way. But it – this feeling of the world being pretty magical and beautiful and astounding, a marvel to look at.”
“And I remember thinking, this is the best, and this is how you should feel. This is what life is. This is life. It’s weird. It’s like being – it’s like having that revelation people talk about when they do various psychedelic drugs, but being – but not being on drugs,” he added.
