Nicolas Winding Refn<\/a> claims he “died” during surgery to fix a “leaking heart” and was brought back to life “like Frankenstein”.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Nicolas Winding Refn has opened up about his near-death experience<\/p>\n
The Drive director, 55, revealed his health scare during the premiere of his new movie Her Private Hell at the Cannes Film Festival in France this week – telling the audience he was “dead” for 25 minutes while he was undergoing heart surgery in 2023.<\/p>\n
According to Variety, he told the audience: “That changes you, when I was brought back by electricity. Now that I\u2019m alive again, I only have 25 years left of my life to live. But I\u2019m going to make damn use of that to live life to the fullest.”<\/p>\n
He later broke down in tears as he opened up about the experience in a press conference, telling reporters: “Before I died, I came to the end of my career. There was nothing for me to do. I had a leaking heart with the blood running backwards.<\/p>\n
“My lungs were filling up with blood \u2026suddenly I was told, I wouldn\u2019t live. Two weeks later, I was operated on. Thank God, the surgeon was [just like] Tom Cruise because he could go through my body with all his abilities and he could fix my heart with this hands.<\/p>\n
\n“I was put together with electricity like Frankenstein. I\u2019m the Bionic Man.<\/p>\n
\n“I realized I could start over again. How many guys get a second chance. I was going to use that chance.”<\/p>\n
\nWinding Refn explained what happened to him during an interview with Deadline.com revealing a last minute appointment with a heart specialist saved his life.<\/p>\n
\nHe said: “It was right after COVID … I was in Milan working with Prada and I was getting very tired, like really, really tired, and then I thought I had pneumonia or something or exhaustion.<\/p>\n
\n“And then when I came back to Copenhagen I went to see a doctor and he was like you don’t have pneumonia … but you have a strange sound on your heart.<\/p>\n
\n“I’m like, yeah whatever, He’s like I think you should see a heart specialist …By accident there was an actual cancellation … there was a specialist and then I went to see him and he’s like you need to go to the hospital right now, like right away, you’re basically dying. My lungs were filling up with blood and I was choking.”<\/p>\n
\nThe moviemaker went on to reveal his heart surgery was filmed and he was given the take of the operation so he could see exactly how his heart was fixed.<\/p>\n
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