Bob Odenkirk shares ‘lucky’ twist of fate that saved his life during heart attack on Better Call Saul

‘Luckily I didn’t go back to my trailer,’ the ‘Better Call Saul’ star said

Bob Odenkirk has recalled the heart attack he had on the set of Better Call Saul in a near-death experience last year.

The 58-year-old actor was rushed to hospital after collapsing on the set of the show on 27 July.

At the time, Odenkirk said that he had a blockage that was fixed without surgery.

In a new interview with the New York Times, Odenkirk revealed he was “lucky” to have been “shooting a scene all day” with his co-stars Rhea Seehorn and Patrick Fabian.

The interview notes that it was his co-stars screams that alerted the show’s medial team to Odenkirk’s heart attack after he fell to the floor in front of them.

Odenkirk, who didn’t have a pulse, suggested he would have ordinarily gone back to this trailer alone had he not been filming with the actors, who play Kim Wexler and Howard Hamlin in the Breaking Bad spin-off, respectively.

“We were shooting a scene – we’d been shooting all day, and luckily I didn’t go back to my trailer,” he said. “I went to play the Cubs game and ride my workout bike, and I just went down. Rhea said I started turning bluish-gray right away.”

Odenkirk said that the automated defibrillator used by the show’s medic failed to bring his pulse back until the third try.

Explaining the history of his health, the actor explained: “I’d known since 2018 that I had this plaque buildup in my heart. I went to two heart doctors at Cedars-Sinai, and I had dye and an MRI and all that stuff.”

He said that two doctors “disagreed” on what treatment to give him, with one telling him to take medication immediately.

However, he said he listened to the other doctor, who told him to wait, adding that the heart attack was caused after “one of those pieces of plaque broke up”.

Bob Odenkirk’s ‘Better Call Saul’ co-stars Rhea Seehorn and Patrick Fabian were with him when he had a heart attack in July 2021 (Getty Images)

Elsewhere in the interview, Odenkirk shared his thoughts on Better Call Saul’s final ever episode, which will air later this year.

However, since the interview was published, his cryptic words on the finale have left fans rather worried.

The actor’s memoir, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama, will be published on 3 March.