Bob Odenkirk Credits ‘Nobody’ Workouts to Saving His Life After Heart Attack
Bob Odenkirk went through a major transformation for Nobody. The movie features him as an ex-assassin turned family man searching for the thieves who broke into his home. But in doing so, he puts his family in even greater danger. Odenkirk went through intense training for the role and credits being in shape for saving his life following his heart attack over the summer.
Bob Odenkirk’s heart attack happened while filming ‘Better Call Saul’
Odenkirk suffered a heart attack in July of 2021. He was reportedly on the set of Better Call Saul — the AMC series on which he plays “criminal” attorney Saul Goodman — when he collapsed and had to be transported to a hospital. The news was first reported by TMZ and confirmed to Showbiz Cheat Sheet in a statement from Odenkirk’s representatives.
Odenkirk, 59, later revealed what happened on Twitter. “I had a small heart attack,” he said in a tweet. “But I’m going to be ok thanks to [‘Better Call Saul’ health officer] Rosa Estrada and the doctors who knew how to fix the blockage without surgery. Also, AMC and SONYs support and help throughout this has been next-level. I’m going to take a beat to recover but I’ll be back soon.”
Eventually, he made a full recovery and was able to go back to work on Better Call Saul, which will air its sixth and final season in 2022.
Odenkirk says the workouts he did for the ‘Nobody’ movie saved his life
Asked by Howard Stern if he thought his workout routine caused his heart attack, Odenkirk said it actually saved him. “I would have been dead if someone hadn’t immediately screamed and gotten someone there to give me CPR,” he continued.
His Better Call Saul co-stars Rhea Seehorn (Kim Wexler) and Patrick Fabian (Howard Hamlin) were specifically the people who rushed to his aid until Estrada came over with a defibrillator.
“It took three attempts to get me to rhythm, which is actually a lot, Howard,” he explained. “When the defibrillator doesn’t work once, that’s not good. When it doesn’t work the second time, that is kind of like — forget it. But then they jacked it up a third time, and it got me back to a rhythm.”
Odenkirk pointed out that it also helped that he was in shape. “Because I was in good shape, you kind of enlarge other veins around your heart, if you work out a lot,” he noted. “And I was told that more blood was able to go to my heart during CPR because these veins were just a little bit bigger from a lot of working out.”
“So that helped me,” he added, “but also recovery-wise I recovered much faster than, I think, a normal person who wasn’t exercising so much would because my body was already in good shape.”
How his outlook on life changed after his heart attack
Odenkirk also discussed how his outlook changed after the incident.
“I’m trying to appreciate my life more, appreciate the people in my life more,” he said on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. “We race through life and if you’re a busy person, which many people are — we’re driven to make it somewhere — but man, you’ve gotta appreciate every person you’re around and you have to work to be present. And that’s what I’m trying to do.”
