A blessing in disguise. Harley Quinn Smith got candid about how her father Kevin Smith‘s heart attack was alarming— but led to the actor making significant health changes.
“That was the scariest thing that ever happened to me,” Harley, 20, exclusively told Us at the recent Los Angeles special screening of the Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. “It was the most difficult thing my family’s ever dealt with but it ended up being a really positive thing in the end because it did kind of make him — I’ve been trying to get him to go vegan for years. It took that happening to make him open to it. Although it was horrible and beyond scary for all of us, we kind of think it’s a good thing now because it could’ve gone absolutely the other way.”
Smith, 49, suffered a massive heart attack in February 2018. The Clerks director shared the news with his Twitter followers with a photo of himself hooked up to tubes and laying in a hospital bed.
“After the first show this evening, I had a massive heart attack,” he wrote. “The Doctor who saved my life told me I had 100% blockage of my LAD artery (aka “the Widow-Maker”). If I hadn’t canceled show 2 to go to the hospital, I would’ve died tonight. But for now, I’m still above ground!”
In May 2018, the Comic Book Men star revealed in an exclusive interview with Us that he didn’t realize he was having a heart attack because he had been smoking marijuana two hours prior.
“Even though they tell me I had a heart attack, I didn’t feel like I was in pain, so I never panicked,” Smith explained. “I was super f—king calm. After I got out of the hospital, I said [to my doctor], ‘Hey man, I hate to admit this, but I was blazed as f—k the day I had the heart attack … Does smoking weed have something to do with a heart attack?’”
Since his heart attack, Smith has made his health a priority. He told Us in February that he has lost 58 pounds through WW (formerly known as Weight Watchers). He added that his weight loss journey wasn’t about his appearance but was strictly to improve his health.
“I just want to stress to those out there who care, it was never about dropping the weight. I wasn’t sitting there like ‘I wanna look good!’” he told Us. “It was about ‘Get this out of your system.’”
With reporting by Taylor Ferber
