PEOPLE
PASADENA, Calif. — Bob Odenkirk is still processing his feelings after suffering a massive heart attack in July 2021 and says a big takeaway is to strive for a better work-life balance.
“I don’t think I’ve figured it out yet," the actor said Tuesday while attending a biannual gathering of TV critics. "I have to do a better job because we don’t get to carry on forever. We just don’t... I want to make the right choices so I can feel like I’m doing the best I can with the time I have left, the things that I love in this world. And I don’t think I’ve figured it out yet, but I’m working on it.”
Odenkirk's heart attack happened while filming the final season of AMC's “Better Call Saul,” and his heart stopped for 18 minutes. He returned to work five weeks later and says he didn't remember what happened, but felt euphoria and also exhaustion.
“I was weirdly upbeat after that heart attack for a long time. It was a gift, I suppose, but also strange to everyone around me... They were very careful about not giving me too much work to do, but it was hard. It was really hard. After about eight hours of shooting, I got tired," he said. "It was like being this weird, little baby bird at the age of 59.”
After production ended on “Saul,” Odenkirk took a long-awaited family vacation and then went right into his new project, the comedy series “Lucky Hank," based on the novel “Straight Man” by Richard Russo.
Odenkirk plays Hank Devereaux, a college English professor who is also the chair of the department at an under-funded Pennsylvania college he describes as “mediocracy's capital."
The audience meets Hank at an unmotivated and uninspired point of his mid-life. The show co-stars Mireille Enos ("The Killing") who is also questioning her own career and purpose in life.
Odenkirk jokes that with choosing his next project at AMC, he "could've been a zombie," referencing the channel's successful “The Walking Dead” franchise, but was drawn to the solid relationships portrayed in “Lucky Hank” and the humor.
“Saul was really alone. He had nothing... It was a tough guy to play, he was so alone. I like that this guy loves his wife, she loves him... I like the humor of him, he's funny and he knows he's being funny. He's making jokes all the time.”
“Lucky Hank” debuts March 19 on AMC and AMC+.
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Bad Bunny is bringing to Netflix an adaptation of the popular LGBTQ young adult novel “They Both Die at the End.”
The Puerto Rican superstar, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is joining forces with Chris Van Dusen, creator of Netflix’s smash hit “Bridgerton,” and Drew Comins, executive producer of Showtime’s Emmy-nominated “Yellowjackets” to bring Adam Silvera’s book to the small screen, Deadline reported Monday.
Set in the near future, the book centers on the last living hours of Mateo and Rufus, two teenagers who receive a bureaucratic call from a corporation called Death-Cast, informing them their life will come to an end in 24 hours or less.
Even though they are total strangers, the two teens connect through an app called Last Friend so they can share one last adventure and “live a lifetime in a single day,” according to a book synopsis.
The novel, which was a breakout hit when it was first released in 2017, made history as the first young-adult novel with queer Latinx characters to top The New York Times Best Seller list.
The book rose to the top of bestselling lists again in 2021 due to an explosive resurgence in interest sparked by TikTok’s #BookTok phenomenon.
“The First To Die At the End,” its prequel, was published in October and has remained on the Times’ bestselling list for the past 13 consecutive weeks.
Van Dusen, who is also writing the show’s pilot, is executive-producing the project alongside Bad Bunny, Silvera and Comins, according to Deadline.
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Naomi Osaka is pregnant and plans to return to competition in 2024, the tennis star announced Wednesday.
The former world No. 1 posted what she called “a little life update for 2023” on social media, including a picture of an ultrasound.
The 25-year-old Osaka has been dating Cordae, a rapper, for years.
“I know that I have so much to look forward to in the future, one thing I'm looking forward to is for my kid to watch one of my matches and tell someone, 'that's my mom,'" Osaka wrote.
Osaka hasn't played a competitive match since September and withdrew from the Australian Open, which begins Sunday. She has won that tournament twice, along with two U.S. Open championships.
She has taken mental health breaks in recent years and didn’t play again after the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, shortly after falling in the first round of the U.S. Open. Osaka said the few months away have given her “a new love and appreciation for the game I’ve dedicated my life to.”
Ash Barty, the 2022 Australian Open champion, announced last week she was pregnant. She retired last year while holding the No. 1 ranking.
But Osaka said she will return to tennis and plans to be in Melbourne next year for the start of the Grand Slam season.
“2023 will be a year that’ll be full of lessons for me and I hope I’ll see you guys in the start of the next one cause I’ll be at Aus 2024,” Osaka wrote. “Love you all infinitely.”
Osaka closed by saying she doesn’t know if there’s a perfectly correct path in life, but that “if you move forward with good intentions you'll find your way eventually.”
From combined wire reports
