During a press conference to promote the 20th annual Málaga Film Festival in his hometown in Spain on Saturday, Antonio Banderas revealed Saturday that he had a heart attack in January which resulted in surgery and, ultimately, a new lease on life.
“I put a major punch to the potato in the last 37 years,” the 56-year-old actor joked, according to the Spanish news outlet El Pais. “I had a heart attack on January 26, but I was very lucky, it was benign and it did not leave any damage. … I underwent an intervention in which three stents were implanted in my coronary arteries, and since I suffered from arrhythmia for a long time (an irregular heartbeat) I underwent a thermoablation (laser surgery), but it has not been as dramatic as it has been written.”
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Banderas, who was presented with an honorary Biznaga de Oro award at the festival, attributed his addiction to work over his nearly four-decade acting career as the cause of the “major beating” his heart took. He now insists that he is on the mend and “wanting to return to work.”
The life-threatening events, however, has paused him long enough to acknowledge his tendency to be a workaholic and rethink “many things” about his life moving forward. As he puts it, “In the shadow of a boat I want to lie down one day and throw everything behind me and dream of joy.”
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