Al Pacino has revealed he almost died from Covid-19 in 2020, saying he “didn’t have a pulse” for several minutes.
In interviews with the New York Times and People magazine published on the weekend, the 84-year-old Godfather and Scarface actor detailed his experience with the virus, which he contracted in 2020 before a vaccine was available.
“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,” Pacino told the New York Times.
The actor said he “felt not good – unusually not good”, and recalled having a fever and dehydration before losing consciousness. “I was sitting there in my house, and I was gone. Like that. I didn’t have a pulse,” he said.
An ambulance arrived and he woke up to a medical team in his living room including six paramedics and two doctors. “They had these outfits on that looked like they were from outer space or something,” he 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.’”
Speaking to People, Pacino questioned whether he had actually died, despite a nurse confirming his lack of pulse. “I thought I experienced death. I might not have … I don’t think I died. Everybody thought I was dead. How could I be dead? If I was dead, I fainted.”
The Oscar winner told the New York Times he “didn’t see the white light or anything” and that “there’s nothing there” after death – though the experience did prompt some existential reflection.
“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,” Pacino said. “But you know actors: it sounds good to say I died once. What is it when there’s no more?”
When asked by People whether his brush with death had changed how he lives, he replied: “Not at all.”
Pacino details the experience in his upcoming memoir, Sonny Boy. His latest movie – titled Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness – premiered last week at the 72nd San Sebastián film festival.
