Kevin Smith has embraced living in the moment after his near-fatal heart attack in 2018.
During San Diego Comic-Con 2024 on July 27, the 53-year-old filmmaker spoke, sharing an update on his mental health after undergoing intensive therapy at Arizona's Sierra Tucson treatment center last year. He stated that his mental health is currently “good.”
"I'm holding on," Smith told. "It's coming up on a year and a half since I got out. When you're in therapy, it's easy to stay healthy because you're surrounded by people doing the same. But once you leave, you're back in the real world and the rat race begins anew."
Since his “massive” widowmaker heart attack in 2018, Smith has been focused on prioritizing his health and appreciating each moment.
"It is a struggle—not a difficult life-or-death struggle, but a struggle—to remember to breathe and be in the here and now. Be mindful, not live in the past, not worry about the future, but just be right here," he said. "And right here is Comic-Con. Nothing wrong with that."
Reflecting on his heart attack, Smith added, "A few years ago, there's a chance that I didn't walk away from a heart attack and that would've been my last Comic-Con. I've gotten six since then. I work under the assumption I'm living on borrowed time, so I just try to enjoy it."
In 2022, Smith told that his heart attack was “the greatest gift I ever had.”
"Not only did it save my life, make me go vegan and healthier, but it gave me the spine for Clerks III," he said.
Clerks III draws heavily from Smith's own experience with his heart attack, which the character Randal Graves (played by Jeff Anderson) also suffers in the film.
One autobiographical scene shows Randal on an operating table during his health scare, with the theme song of Degrassi: The Next Generation playing in his head. "That was based on real life," Smith explained.
"I was making peace with the fact that this could be it," he recalled, noting that the doctor told him he had an 80 percent chance of dying. "And so at one point I started singing what I feel is one of the most positively reinforcing songs ever recorded, which is the opening theme song."
The Quran - Chapter At-Taghabun : 02
He is the One Who created you, yet some of you are disbelievers while some are believers. And Allah is All-Seeing of what you do.
