Los Angeles, March 27 – Hollywood star Antonio Banderas has claimed that his near-fatal heart attack was the best thing to happen to him, due to the changes he made in his life.
The 65-year-old actor reassessed his life after suffering a medical emergency in 2017 and after returning to his birthplace of Malaga, Spain, after stepping away from his Hollywood lifestyle.
Banderas, who lives with his partner Nicole Kimpel, told The Times newspaper that he believes his heart attack was the best thing to happen to him: "Seriously, it was a very serious wake-up call. It changed the way I look at life.
"Faced with death, it made me look back and realize that I am, in fact, a theatre actor. I have never been so happy."
He joked that he is so enamored with his theatre that he will still be there when he dies, according to femalefirst.co.uk.
He said: "A few months before (my father) died, we were watching the procession of the Holy Sepulchre pass by on Good Friday, and suddenly, without looking at me, he said, 'I think there's nothing. I think there's nothing after death.' My father, who was very Catholic, said that. I will come back as a ghost, to haunt my theatre."
The star reflected on his "big leap to Hollywood", which he felt had previously "been limited to Spaniards", and admitted his insecurities disappeared when he found professional success and personal contentment with his former spouse, Melanie Griffith, the mother of his daughter, Stella, 29.
He said: "I didn't speak English, but little by little, I made a career for myself there. I later married an American woman, and my life changed, my insecurities disappeared."
Antonio was warned when he arrived in America to expect to only play villains, so he is very proud to have played the titular hero in The Mask of Zorro and The Legend of Zorro, but he thinks his role as Puss in Boots in the Shrek franchise was particularly important for representation.