How Bob Odenkirk's heart attack caused him to make life changes
Bob Odenkirk has admitted he learnedvaluable life lessons after suffering a heart attack in 2021.
Bob Odenkirk vowed to live a quieter life after his heart attack.
The 63-year-old actor suffered a medical emergency on the set of Better Call Saul in 2021, and his near-death experience made him determined to cut back on his working commitments in order to appreciate the good things in his life.
Asked if the heart attack made him want to quit acting and lead a quieter life, he told The Guardian newspaper: "That’s a very good question, because it kind of did. I did keep going and chose to work, but I’m not going to keep working at the same level.
"It made me think how fragile life is, and how hard it is to appreciate life when you’re over-scheduled. When you’ve got too many responsibilities and too much to do, you can’t appreciate each thing you do. You just have to move quickly to the next thing. I don’t like that.
"If that heart attack gave me any gift, it was the realisation that I didn’t want to carry on that way, so now I am slowing down.
"The thing is, I had signed up to a lot of responsibilities before I had that heart attack. I had years of projects to follow through on. But now, I’m just going to go to Paris with my wife and do f*** all."
In recent years, Bob has made a surprising turn into the action genre, thanks to roles in movies such as Nobody and Normal, and he admitted he enjoys getting to "play out" the rage he has inside of him.
Asked why he moved into the action sphere, he said: "I’m 63 years old, and there aren’t a lot of romcoms written for my generation. I like action movies. I have a lot of rage inside me that I get to play out. It started as a joke, but through some massive cock-up, I’ve somehow pulled it off."
Bob stars in Normal with Henry Winkler and he praised his co-star as "the sweetest guy alive".
He gushed: "Henry himself is the sweetest guy alive. If he unleashed anything in me, he unleashed the desire to be as kind, generous and friendly as he finds his way to be in the world every day.
"And that’s not easy to do. It’s a choice to meet the world’s annoyances and frustrations with the patience and kindness that he does.
"He’s a special guy, so I’m glad I got him to play such a jerk who gets his comeuppance."
