Hollywood actor Al Pacino has opened up about a near-fatal battle with Covid-19 in 2020, revealing that he “didn’t have a pulse” for several minutes during his illness.

In recent interviews with the New York Times and People magazine, the 84-year-old star shared details of his experience with the coronavirus, which he contracted before vaccines were available.

“They said my pulse was gone. It was so — you’re here, you’re not. I thought: Wow, you don’t even have your memories. You have nothing. Strange porridge,” Pacino told to the New York Times.

The star of The Godfather and Scarface recounted feeling unusually unwell, suffering from fever and dehydration before he ultimately lost consciousness. “I was sitting there in my house, and I was gone. Like that. I didn’t have a pulse,” he recalled.

Al Pacino described a startling moment when he regained consciousness to find a medical team in his living room, including six paramedics and two doctors. “They had these outfits on that looked like they were from outer space or something,” he recalled. “It was kind of shocking to open your eyes and see that. Everybody was around me, and they said: ‘He’s back. He’s here.’”

In an interview with People, Pacino pondered whether he had truly experienced death, even as a nurse had confirmed his lack of pulse. “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 stated.

The Oscar-winning actor shared with the New York Times that he “didn’t see the white light or anything” and felt there was “nothing there” after death, although the experience did lead him to reflect on existential themes.

Quoting Shakespeare, he said, “As Hamlet says, ‘To be or not to be’; ‘The undiscovered country from whose bourn, no traveler returns.’ And he says two words: ‘No more’. It was no more. You’re gone. I’d never thought about it in my life.” He added with a touch of humor, “But you know actors: it sounds good to say I died once. What is it when there’s no more?”

When asked if this brush with death had changed his outlook on life, Pacino simply replied, “Not at all.”