In July 2021, Odenkirk collapsed on set in Albuquerque, New Mexico while filming the show’s sixth and final season. He later confirmed it was due to a “minor heart attack”.
The star, who has been nominated for multiple Golden Globes and Emmys for playing the titular character, has now revealed he stopped breathing during the scary episode but was saved thanks to medical attention from emergency on set.
While he can’t recall the immediate aftermath of the incident, he now knows it happened around 5:30 p.m. when the cast and crew were changing plans. Around that time, Odenkirk, now 59, rode an exercise bike that he used between filming to watch a Chicago Cubs baseball game on TV, he said.
The star, who plays con-man-turned-lawyer Jimmy McGill who takes the alias Saul Goodman, said his co-stars Rhea Seehorn, who plays Kim Wexler, and Patrick Fabian, who plays Howard Hamlin, grabbed his head and hand and “started yelling at me to stay on Earth.”
“I wasn’t breathing,” he continued. “I mean, if nobody had been there, if they hadn’t done that CPR, I would have been dead within minutes.”
He had three defibrillator shots and then emergency surgery to clear the artery he called “the widower”.
“Better Call Saul” is a prequel to the AMC hit “Breaking Bad,” which ran for five seasons between 2008 and 2013. This show featured Odenkirk as Goodman, a lawyer for Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston.
Odenkirk told the Radio Times that the reunion was “the greatest joy ever”, adding: “The first episode I did on ‘Breaking Bad’ was a big scene with these guys in the desert, at 2 morning hours, in a sandstorm. So, to revisit the relationship now…I can’t say more. ‘Cause it’s a mind-blowing, man.
The series finale is set to air on August 15.