Bob Odenkirk has reflected on his devastating heart attack, explaining that he thinks about it every single day.
The 60-year-old was after collapsing on the set of Better Call Saul, while filming scenes for season six of the gritty drama.
He took time off to recover before returning to the Breaking Bad spin-off off two months later, .
Discussing his health in a new interview, to promote his new children’s book, Zilot & Other Important Rhymes, the actor revealed how he managed to retain his positive energy.
‘It’s something I think about every day,’ Bob told . ‘Weirdly, it didn’t affect me much for a long time.
‘I had a strange kind of upbeat energy literally the next day, and every day. It was because I had a mind wipe every night.
‘So my ability to even think about what had happened to me [was compromised] – I needed to hear about it from people who’d been there, and I needed my brain to get back on a normal state.’
Bob also vowed that he wouldn’t return to working as hard as he did when the , insisting that he would ‘avoid’ those projects in future.
‘I don’t think I’ll ever do it,’ he added. ‘I’ll never agree to working as much as I did for so many years. I’ll never do it. If I see that coming down the pike, I’ll avoid it.
‘If you’re not able to collect memories because you’re just hustling exhaustedly from one project to the next, then you’re not really able to enjoy the work you’re doing and it’s not worth it. You don’t get to live forever. It’s going to end. And in order for it to feel like something, you have to have the time to take it in.’
Bob was taken in for treatment after falling ill during production in July, 2021, with his co-stars among those rallying around him on social media.
After returning home from the hospital, he reprised his role as smarmy lawyer Jimmy McGill (aka Saul Goodman), to finish the final season.
The star previously shared that he didn’t remember exactly what happened, but that his fellow cast and crew members had been ‘traumatized’ after witnessing his ordeal first hand.
‘I would say that the cast and crew were more traumatized than me, because I have a blank space where I had this heart attack,’ he told People Magazine. ‘I don’t remember the day it happened or the next week and a half.
‘They all were standing right there. And they watched me go down, and they watched them use the defibrillator three times on me, and they watched the professionals around look at each other and say he’s not coming back.
‘They all went through that, and I didn’t. But I did go through it afterward when they shared the stories with me and they did, and I asked them to.’
Bob took to Twitter on the one-year anniversary of his heart attack, adding that he would ‘forever feel unworthy’ of surviving.
‘A Thank You to you, whoever you are,’ he began. ‘A year ago today I briefly flirted with “quietus” and this elicited a wave of goodwill and warmth towards me.
‘I will forever feel unworthy of it. I will also always be appreciative and look to pass it on.
‘Thank you. No reply necessary.’
