Antonio Banderas suffered a heart attack earlier this year that left him hospitalized and forced him to undergo surgery to have three stents placed in his arteries. However, the Once Upon A Time In Mexico star has been able to find a silver lining from the health scare in which he collapsed while working out. According to the 56-year-old actor, he immediately was able to quit smoking.
“If there is something good that came from all of this, it is that I suddenly stopped smoking, without needing pills or anything like that. It’s over!” Banderas said while talking with Spanish publication Diario Sur.
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When the scary ordeal went down, one of Antonio Banderas’s reps gave this statement to People magazine: “We can confirm that last Thursday Antonio was admitted to hospital after having experienced chest pain while exercising. However, Antonio was released that same day after doctors performed a check-up which confirmed his good health.”
After the incident, Antonio Banderas tried to downplay the situation to try and not make it seem like a larger issue than it was.
“I suffered a heart attack on January 26. It was a benign attack, it hasn’t caused any permanent damage and now I’m in a recovery period,” he said. “It’s something that happens every day to a lot of people. I didn’t hide it, but I didn’t want it to receive more importance than those suffered by other people.”
Even though he had a heart attack and is in recovery, Antonio Banderas wants to continue to work. However, he is going to be attacking his next roles with a different approach.
“I’m going to keep working but I’m going to do it at another rhythm,” he said. “I am going to give myself space, take time between productions, and above all make the jump which I have yearned for a long time, and put myself behind the camera, write my scripts.”
Currently, Antonio Banderas doesn’t have too much work on the docket. One project that he is involved with is a film titled Life Itself, a movie in which he’ll co-star alongside Oscar Isaac (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Olivia Cooke (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), Mandy Patinkin (Homeland), Samuel L. Jackson (Kong: Skull Island), Olivia Wilde (The Lazarus Effect), and Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right).
When Antonio Banderas isn’t working on movies, he has been spending time with his new girlfriend, 37-year-old Nicole Kimpel.
Were you surprised to learn that Antonio Banderas was able to quit smoking following his heart attack?
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[H/T Daily Mail, Diario Sur]
