In a recent interview, veteran actor Al Pacino, now 84, candidly recounted his harrowing experience with Covid-19 back in 2020. He reflected on the frightening moment when he briefly “didn’t have a pulse.”

Sharing insights with both the New York Times and People magazine, Pacino described the unsettling times leading up to his illness, which struck before vaccines were available. “They said my pulse was gone. It was such a strange feeling—you’re here, and then you’re not. I thought: Wow, you don’t even have your memories. You have nothing. It’s like strange porridge,” he recalled in his conversation with the New York Times.

Pacino detailed the symptoms that preceded his collapse, saying he felt increasingly ill, battling fever and dehydration before losing consciousness. “I was sitting at home, and then just like that, I was gone. I didn’t have a pulse,” he recounted.

When the ambulance arrived, he regained consciousness to find himself surrounded by six paramedics and two doctors in his living room. He described the moment as shocking: “They had these outfits on that looked like they were from outer space or something. It was quite startling to open your eyes and see that. Everybody was around me, saying, ‘He’s back. He’s here.’”

Pacino reflected deeply on the experience, pondering whether he had truly experienced death, despite the nurse’s assessment of his state. “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,” he told People.

He also mentioned that he didn’t see the often-discussed “white light” typically associated with near-death experiences, prompting him to consider the essence of existence itself. “As Hamlet says, ‘To be or not to be; the undiscovered country from whose bourn, no traveler returns.’ And he mentions two words: ‘No more’. It was no more. You’re gone. I’d never thought about it in my life,” Pacino mused. “But you know actors: it sounds good to say I died once. What is it when there’s no more?”

When asked whether this brush with death changed his outlook on life, Pacino simply shrugged it off, saying, “Not at all.”

He intends to explore this experience further in his forthcoming memoir, “Sonny Boy.” Meanwhile, his latest film, “Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness,” premiered last week at the 72nd San Sebastián Film Festival.