Al Pacino—yeah, the Al Pacino, the man who’s been making tough-guy faces on screen for decades—just dropped a bombshell on what it’s like to nearly kick the bucket. Spoiler alert: It’s got porridge in it.
The 84-year-old acting legend hopped on The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast, where he revealed that he took a quick (and totally unplanned) stroll to the afterlife during a battle with COVID-19. And by “stroll,” I mean he actually lost his pulse. Yep, no heartbeat. Gone. Kaput. Cue dramatic music.
Apparently, COVID gave him a swift kick in the dehydration department, and he found himself thinking, “Hmm, this feels worse than when I got shot in Scarface!” His actual words were a bit more poetic: “My pulse was gone. You’re here, then poof, you’re not. And I thought: Wow, you don’t even get to keep your memories. You’ve got nothing. Just strange porridge.” STRANGE PORRIDGE?! Al, buddy, what is this afterlife—an outtake from Goldilocks and the Three Bears?
Pacino didn’t mince words on the whole near-death ordeal. “I felt… not good—unusually not good.” (Because, you know, he’s felt regular ‘not good’ before.) So, what did the Godfather of Hollywood do? He called in reinforcements. “I got someone to get me a nurse to hydrate me.” Oh, to be rich enough to casually order up a nurse like it’s room service. “Hydrate me, please. And make it snappy.”
And here comes the twist! While chilling in his house (because where else would you nearly die?), he said he just… went. Boom! Pulse gone. Lights out. All without so much as a ‘goodbye cruel world.’ But don’t worry, the ambulance crew showed up faster than you can say “Say hello to my little friend!”
“I had six paramedics in my living room,” he shared, still sounding a little impressed. And here’s the kicker: “They had these outfits on that made them look like they just stepped off a UFO.” So, imagine Al Pacino—eyes fluttering open after an epic COVID-induced blackout—only to be greeted by a scene from Men in Black. His reaction? Probably somewhere between “Whoa” and “Am I in another movie right now?”
And then the paramedics, like modern-day superheroes, said those magical words: “He’s back.” A bit anticlimactic, sure, but hey—at least it wasn’t “He’s toast.”
Of course, Al being Al, he wasn’t done with the existential musings. When asked about any metaphysical epiphanies, he dropped some Shakespeare. (Because why not?) No white light, no heavenly choir, just… nothing. As he put it, quoting Hamlet, it was like, “No more.” Gone. Zilch. No backstage pass to the afterlife. Just a one-way ticket to Nada Town.
Pacino then joked that, as an actor, he might start throwing in, “I died once,” just to flex at parties. Because, you know, Hollywood types love a dramatic line—whether they’re reciting it on screen or at brunch. And now, Al Pacino can officially add “briefly dead” to his already lengthy résumé.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, Pacino also dished some juicy behind-the-scenes details about his biggest movies. But after that whole brush-with-death story, who even remembers those anymore?