Better Call Saul actor Bob Odenkirk has confirmed that his heart attack scare in 2021 occurred while filming next week’s episode of the hit show.
On July 28, 2021, the 58-year-old star of the Breaking Bad prequel collapsed in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His son, Nate Odenkirk, reassured fans the following day that the actor was “going to be okay”.
Two days after the heart attack, Odenkirk took to social media to address his fans for the first time. The Twitter post explained that he had suffered “a small heart attack” and would “be back soon”.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter recently, Odenkirk revealed the episode he was filming when the attack happened and reflected on his health in the past year after the incident.
“I feel very good. I’m in great shape,” he said. “I didn’t go back to shoot for five weeks. I had a five-week break to recover. And then, when I went back, we limited our shooting to 12-hour days. And so they took care of me, and I was able to do it, and hopefully, you can’t tell when I had the heart attack and when I didn’t.”
“Next week is the scene where I have the heart attack,” Odenkirk continued. “And probably about three-quarters of the scene was shot before I had the heart attack, the day of the heart attack, and then the other quarter scene was after.”
Later, Odenkirk explained that he finds it strange watching the episode back because he has no recollection of what happened on the day he suffered the heart attack.
“The strangest thing about it is that I really have no memory of that day,” he explained. “I’m really watching something that I don’t have any memory of acting in, which is a rare thing. I mean, usually, you watch some, and you have some recall of that even if it was shot months ago. But in this case, it’s such a complete blank.”
“It’s very strange. I gotta tell you, it’s a weird thing to have lost basically about a week and a half. Clean, just clean, clean nothing. That’s a strange experience, anyway. Otherwise, I’m fine.”
Filming for Better Call Saul‘s sixth and final season began in March 2021 but was halted after Odenkirk suffered the heart attack. Production resumed in September, and now the show’s concluding episodes are dropping every Tuesday on Netflix (Every Monday in the US on AMC).
Watch the official trailer for the sixth season of Better Call Saul below.
