Antonio Banderas says his heart attack was the best thing that ever happened. The Spanish actor was at home when the chest pains started nearly a decade ago.
He was at home in England when the pain hit, and his girlfriend acted fast enough to change everything. Years later, he says that night handed him a clarity he had been missing his whole life.
Antonio Banderas said surviving a heart attack taught him to stop wasting time on things that matter least
Antonio Banderas now savors every small moment, and he nearly lost his life getting there.
Nearly a decade ago, the actor was home in Surrey, England, when chest pains started. His longtime girlfriend, Nicole Kimpel, quickly gave him aspirin. Medics arrived and took him to the hospital, where he underwent emergency heart surgery. Doctors placed three stents in his arteries.
The Antonio Banderas heart attack in 2017 pushed the 66-year-old into major changes. He quit smoking and moved back to his hometown of Málaga, Spain.
“You always have in your mind that you’re going to die,” he told PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “But then when you have it so close, it’s an unbelievably clear reminder of how stupid you are losing time over things that don’t deserve to be in your life.”
He credits the near-death experience with reshaping how he sees everything. “My heart attack was the best thing that ever happened in my life,” he continued. “It was like somebody put glasses on me so I could see the reality that I didn’t see before.”
What survived that reset now anchors his life in Málaga. He runs the Teatro del Soho CaixaBank there, producing plays and musicals, and has invested in several notable dining spots around town. “It’s true that food and gastronomy is a culture,” he said.
That belief carries into the Tony biopic, where he plays a chef who shapes the early life of the late Anthony Bourdain, portrayed by Dominic Sessa. “I didn’t know Anthony Bourdain personally, but I thought that (Bourdain’s travelogue series No Reservations) was a beautiful show that was not actually about cooking, but life,” the actor said. “And I have eight restaurants, so I am a little bit in that world, too. It’s almost impossible to say no to a project like this.”
The Spanish actor got his start with Pedro Almodóvar before breaking out in the U.S. with 1992’s The Mambo Kings and 1993’s Philadelphia. He says gratitude fills his life in Spain now.
“Those were beautiful, exciting years (in L.A.), but I always had this sense of provisionality, that it was not going to last my whole life. I knew was not supposed to be in Malibu, but in Málaga,” he said. “People live like they are not going to die. They collect things. I don’t want to collect anything. The only thing that I am interested in now is in the experience of living.”
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