HEAVEN HOAX

Bob Odenkirk Says He Was Disappointed by Near-Death Experience

The “Breaking Bad” star found his heart attack altogether underwhelming.

Bob Odenkirk has spent the better part of the last decade playing a grifter nicknamed ‘Slippin Jimmy,’ so it’s hardly surprising that when a heart attack landed him in the hospital, he didn’t see a path to heaven. On Thursday, Odenkirk’s friend Marc Maron told Conan O’Brien about the days after Odenkirk was hospitalized during an episode of “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.” “I basically died for a little while. And I have to say, I saw nothing,” Odenkirk texted Maron from the Albuquerque hospital where he was taken. Then, the Emmy winner apparently doubled down, texting Maron the following: “I’m doing great. By the way, I saw exactly no light when I was dead. The whole heaven thing is a hoax. Follow the money.” Odenkirk suffered what he called a “small heart attack” while filming the last season of Better Call Saul, which puts Odenkirk in the starring role after fans resonated with his character in Breaking Bad. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2022, Odenkirk said that the scene he was filming when he suffered the attack made it into the final cut of the show—but he has no memory of acting in it.