Bob Odenkirk opened up a health scare he had faced two years ago and candidly revealed he learned he suffered a heart attack from a ‘chart’ that his daughter, Erin, had made.
The Better Call Saul star, 60 – who notably had a heart attack in 2021 while filming the sixth season of the hit spin-off series – discussed his time in the hospital while promoting the collaborative children’s book: Zilot & Other Important Rhymes.
During a recent joint interview with Entertainment Tonight, the Emmy-nominated actor expressed to his daughter, 22, ‘You made a chart for me of what happened the last week.’
‘Every day I woke up and I didn’t know what had happened to me or kind of almost what was happening, and Erin made a nice chart it was her version of the movie Momento…’
He added, ‘where I could look up and see, “you had a heart attack, these people visited, then you came to, you had the surgery.”‘
By his side: Bob Odenkirk, 60, opened up a health scare he had faced two years ago and candidly revealed he learned he suffered a heart attack from a ‘chart’ that his daughter, Erin, 22, had made; seen on Tuesday
Erin also took extra care of her father after he returned home from the hospital, and made sure he took his recovery seriously.
‘Almost every morning you would wake up and try to get out of bed to go walk to set to finish shooting your scenes,’ she recalled.
‘That was a big part of the recovery was trying to get you to stay in the room and sleep and not go to work.’
Bob admitted during an interview with Yahoo Life earlier this week that his heart attack is, ‘something I think about every day.’
‘Weirdly, it didn’t affect me much for a long time. I had a strange kind of upbeat energy literally the next day, and every day. It was because I had, like, a mind wipe every night,’ he explained to the outlet.
‘And so my ability to even think about what had happened to me [was compromised] – I needed to hear about it from people who’d been there, and I needed my brain to get back on a normal state.’
Odenkirk – who shares Erin and son Nate, 24, with wife Naomi – also admitted that he would take it slowly from now on when it comes to his work life.
‘Now that I’ve been able to make some space in my life – partly because of the and the – I’ve had time to contemplate what happened and, and it makes me think, “How do I enjoy the days that I have?””
A ‘chart’: During a recent joint interview with Entertainment Tonight , the Emmy-nominated actor expressed to his daughter, 22, ‘You made a chart for me of what happened the last week’; seen in March in Hollywood
Informed: He added, ‘where I could look up and see, “you had a heart attack, these people visited, then you came to, you had the surgery’; seen in March in Austin
‘And part of that is you need space. You can’t just rush from thing to thing. I know one of the poems in here is called “Lollygagging,” and that’s certainly is something I’ve thought a lot about, is the ability to daydream or just take things in and reflect upon what happened to you.’
The Breaking Bad alum then added, ‘I’ll never agree to working as much as I did for so many years. I’ll never do it. If I see that coming down the pike, I’ll avoid it.’
‘If you’re not able to collect memories because you’re just hustling exhaustedly from one project to the next, then you’re not really able to enjoy the work you’re doing and it’s not worth it.’
He further reflected, ‘You don’t get to live forever. It’s gonna end. And in order for it to feel like something, you have to have the time to take it in.’
Last month in September, he admitted during an interview on Today that he hadn’t listened to his doctor’s advice before his heart attack.
‘My doctor was a conservative. He got crankier and crankier the older he got,’ Odenkirk expressed. ‘So, I’d been with him for 20 years, and he said, “You need to start taking statins right now.”‘ Statins can help lower cholesterol in the blood.
‘And I said, “Well, I don’t know. I don’t have heart disease in my family.” He goes, “Just take ’em.” And I didn’t listen to him.’ Instead, he visited a second doctor for a second opinion and was told, ‘”You don’t need medicine yet.”‘
Bob revealed, ‘And I had a heart attack. And I think the first doctor was right, the cranky conservative jack*** was right, because he was a God d**n good doctor.’
Family: Odenkirk shares his daughter Erin and son Nate, 24, with wife Naomi – whom he tied the knot with in 1997; the couple seen June in NYC
Reflecting: Bob admitted during an interview with Yahoo Life earlier this week that his heart attack is, ‘something I think about every day’; seen in June 2022 in NYC
Aside from focusing on his health, Bob has been celebrating the release of his latest children’s book, Zilot & Other Important Rhymes, with the illustrations done by his daughter, Erin.
Bob’s son, Nate, also helped with the project, and he had a big part when it came to the main title.
Erin told ET, ‘Zilot is an indoor fort. It’s the perfect name for this book because it’s a word that my brother invented back in the era when we were writing the original poems.’
Bob later admitted, ‘I didn’t have a plan to enter the world of published poetry,’ when it came to penning the book. ‘I just wanted to write a poetry book with my two kids, Nate and Erin.’
Health scare: The Better Call Saul star notably had a heart attack in 2021 while filming the sixth season of the hit spin-off series
Advice: Last month in September, he admitted during an interview on Today that he hadn’t listened to his doctor’s advice before his heart attack; seen in April 2022 in Hollywood
The star told his daughter, ‘Then because we wrote all those poems when you were young, and I knew a few of them were pretty good, like almost perfect, I thought I should keep this around maybe we could turn it into a book.’
On how Nate was involved, Erin stated, ‘Well not only did he help write a lot if not all of the poems from the original book, because he’s the really more silly sibling, he also helped write some of the finished versions that made it into the book.’
‘And he helped me with drawing ideas. And he helped me by being someone to vent to when I was annoyed at Dad. ‘
Zilot & Other Important Rhymes officially hit shelves earlier this week on Tuesday, October 10.
