Al Pacino is sharing new details about an intense health scare he experienced four years ago.
In an interview with the New York Times published Oct. 5, the 84-year-old revealed that he almost died when he contracted COVID-19 in 2020.
The topic came up when Pacino was asked how the aging experience has been for him.
"I don’t know what the hell aging is. It seems absurd and crazy. I sometimes think, Why can’t I find some steroids that won’t kill me? I took some when I had bad COVID," he said.
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Pacino went on to recall the experience.
"They said my pulse was gone. It was so — you’re here, you’re not. I thought: Wow, you don’t even have your memories. You have nothing. Strange porridge," he said.
The actor said he knew something was wrong when he started to feel "unusually not good" and developed a fever and dehydration.
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"So I got someone to get me a nurse to hydrate me. I was sitting there in my house, and I was gone. Like that. I didn’t have a pulse. In a matter of minutes they were there — the ambulance in front of my house," he said. "I had about six paramedics in that living room, and there were two doctors, and they had these outfits on that looked like they were from outer space or something."
The near-death experience has left a lasting impact, Pacino said.
"It was kind of shocking to open your eyes and see that. Everybody was around me, and they said: 'He’s back. He’s here,'" he recalled.
The acting legend said he "didn't see the white light or anything" but did get a bit philosophical while reflecting on what happened.
"As Hamlet says, 'To be or not to be'; 'The undiscovered country from whose bourn, no traveler returns.' And he says two words: 'no more.' It was no more. You’re gone. I’d never thought about it in my life," he said. "But you know actors: It sounds good to say I died once. What is it when there’s no more?"
Pacino, who welcomed his fourth child in 2023, noted that he has developed "a different view of death" as he's gotten older.
"It’s just the way it is. I didn’t ask for it. Just comes, like a lot of things just come," he said.
As Pacino prepares to release a memoir called "Sonny Boy" this month, he was asked if his son, Roman, now 1, inspired him to write down his story in his own words.
"That’s one of the reasons, of course," he said. "And that has been a campaign for me to stick around a little longer if it’s possible."
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