Bob Odenkirk Details Harrowing Heart Attack On Better Call Saul Set
Bob Odenkirk details the harrowing heart attack he suffered on the Better Call Saul set. Last summer, the actor was filming the sixth and final season of the Breaking Bad spinoff show when he suddenly collapsed on-set and was rushed to the hospital. After an agonizing amount of time without any updates, Odenkirk's son was the first to send word that he would be okay and make a full recovery. In the wake of his health scare, Odenkirk thanks fans and co-stars for their outpouring of support during the tough time.
While Odenkirk was on the mend, Better Call Saul season 6 continued production without its lead star by filming scenes that didn't have his character. A few months later, Odenkirk was able to return to set and finish filming the final season at his own pace. Season 6 does not yet have a premiere date, though it has understandably been pushed back, first due to the pandemic and then because of Odenkirk's health scare. Of course, fans have remained patient considering the circumstances and eager to see how the prequel series caps off Saul Goodman's origin story.
In a new profile by The New York Times, Odenkirk is now opening up about his harrowing experience on the Better Call Saul set, detailing the precise moment he suffered the heart attack. After a long day of shooting, he and his co-stars Rhea Seehorn and Patrick Fabian retreated to a spot where they like to relax during downtime, which is when it happened. Odenkirk has no memory of the event and only knows what he has cobbled together from the accounts of others who helped save his life. Read what he had to say below:
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 M.R.I. and all that stuff, and the doctors disagreed. We were shooting a scene, we’d been shooting all day, and luckily I didn’t go back to my trailer. 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. And around 5 a.m. the next morning they went through right here and blew up the little balloons and knocked out that plaque and left stents in two places.
Odenkirk was first introduced as the sleazy criminal lawyer, Saul Goodman, in season 2 of AMC's hit series, Breaking Bad, which centered on the high school chemistry teacher turned meth manufacturer, Walter White (Bryan Cranston). After that series ended in 2013, creator Vince Gilligan and company rode off its success into the prequel series Better Call Saul, which premiered in 2015. The show provides a full-fledged origin story for its titular lawyer, beginning when he was a public defense attorney known as Jimmy McGill.
Better Call Saul season 6 is now on the horizon, and AMC just released the first teaser trailer, which reveals the Cousins' return. Some have also speculated that this first look secretly reveals an April 18 premiere date. The final season was already an emotional experience for Odenkirk as possibly his last portrayal of the career-defining role he's been inhabiting for the past decade. After his brush with death, Odenkirk likely returned to set with a renewed perspective on life. In the famous words of his character, "It's all good, man."
Source: The New York Times