Al Pacino revealed he nearly died of Covid-19 in 2020, saying he had “no pulse” for a few minutes.
In interviews with The New York Times and People magazine published over the weekend, the 84-year-old Godfather and Scarface actor described his experience with the virus, which he contracted in 2020 before a vaccine was available.
“They said my pulse is gone. It was like that – you’re here, you’re not. I thought: Oh, you don’t even have your memories. You have nothing. Weird Porridge” Pacino told the New York Times.
The actor said he was “unwell – not unusually well” and recalled having a fever and dehydration before losing consciousness. “I was sitting in my house and I was gone. Like. I didn’t have a pulse,” he said.
An ambulance arrived and he raised a medical team in his room, including six paramedics and two doctors. “They were wearing these clothes like they were from outer space or something,” he said. “It was kind of a shock to open your eyes and see it. Everyone was around me and they were saying: ‘He’s back. He’s here.'”
When talking to people, Although a nurse confirmed he had no pulse, Pacino questioned whether he was actually dead. “I thought I had experienced death. Maybe I hadn’t … I didn’t think I was dead. Everyone thought I was dead. How could I be dead? If I was dead, I fainted.
The Oscar winner told the New York Times that he “didn’t see a white light or anything” and that after death “there was nothing there” — an experience that prompted some existential reflection.
“As Hamlet says, ‘To be or not to be’; ‘The undiscovered country From whose land, no traveler returns.’ And he says two words: ‘No more. I never thought about it in my life. But you know, I’m dead. What is it when it is no more?”
Asked by People if his brush with death had changed his life, he replied: “No.”
Pacino recounts the experience in his upcoming memoir, Sonny Boy. His latest film – Modi, Three Days on the Wing of Madness – premiered at the 72nd San Sebastian Film Festival last week.
