Al Pacino revealed on The New York Times’ podcast “The Interview” that he lost his pulse during a near-death experience with Covid during the 2020 pandemic. The infection led to dehydration and “my pulse was gone,” the Oscar winner said. It was just like that – you’re here, you’re not there. I thought: Wow, you don’t even have your memories. You have nothing. Strange porridge.”
“What happened was I didn’t feel good, I wasn’t unusually well,” Pacino explained. “Then I got a fever, and I was feeling dehydrated and stuff. So I got someone to get me a nurse to hydrate me. I was sitting there in my house, and she went. Like that. I didn’t have a pulse.”
He continued: “Within minutes, they were there – the ambulance in front of my house.” “I had about six paramedics in that living room, and there were two doctors, and they were wearing these clothes that looked like they were from outer space or something. It was kind of shocking to open your eyes and see that. And everyone was around me, and they were like, ‘He’s back.’ “He is here.”
When asked if his brush with death had triggered any “metaphysical waves”, Pacino said: “I didn’t see the white light or anything. There’s nothing there. As Hamlet says: ‘To be or not to be’; ‘The undiscovered country that does not A traveler returns from his boy.” And he says two words: “No more.” It’s no more. I’m gone. I’ve never thought of that in my life. But you know actors: It seems good to say I died once. What’s it like when you don’t Is there more?
Pacino has been making the press rounds in support of his upcoming memoir, “Sonny Boy,” which will be published on October 15. The actor most recently appeared in Johnny Depp’s “Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness,” which premiered at the San Francisco Film Festival this year. Sebastian Film Festival. The Oscar winner’s upcoming roles include “Lear Rex,” a remake of “King Lear” co-starring Jessica Chastain, and the horror film “The Ritual.”
Head to the New York Times website to hear Pacino’s “interview” discussion in full.