Bob Odenkirk has shared details about the heart attack he suffered on the set of “Better Call Saul” last summer for the first time in an interview with “The New York Times.”
The actor was hospitalized on July 27 after he collapsed on set. On Aug. 7, he assured fans on social media that he was feeling better after the “small heart attack,” which was able to be resolved without surgery.
“I’d known since 2018 that I had this plaque buildup in my heart,” Odenkirk explained to “The New York Times.”
He visited two doctors who had differing opinions on how to treat the condition. One suggested he start medication, while the other said he could wait, the actor said.
Odenkirk decided to listen to the second doctor and remained fine until that day one set when “one of those pieces of plaque broke up.”
“We were shooting a scene, we’d been shooting all day, and luckily I didn’t go back to my trailer,” he said, explaining that instead he went to a rest area where he and co-starts Rhea Seehorn and Patrick Fabian regularly spent time. That’s where he collapsed.
“I just went down,” he said. “Rhea said I started turning bluish-gray right away.”
Seehorn and Fabian were able to help get the attention of the show’s medical team, who began performing CPR. They hooked him up to an automated defibrillator, shocking him three times.
“The third time it got me that rhythm back,” Odenkirk told the newspaper.
He was then transported to the hospital, where he said “they went through right [at my wrist area] and blew up the little balloons and knocked out that plaque and left stents in two places.”
The final season of “Better Call Saul” began filming in New Mexico back in March and was eyeing an early 2022 premiere on AMC. Like most other shows, filming had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following his heart attack, Odenkirk returned to the set in September. He tweeted a photo from his makeup chair to commemorate the occasion.
Since reprising his role as con-man lawyer Saul Goodman in the prequel spinoff series to “Breaking Bad,” Odenkirk has earned four Golden Globe nominations for best actor in a television series drama, and four Emmy nominations for outstanding lead actor in a drama series. The upcoming sixth season has been announced as the show’s last, with the final episodes set to wrap up the story of Jimmy McGill’s transformation into Saul Goodman.