So, for years, I would lose vision in one eye, and it would just start to go dark. I would pretend that it wasn’t happening. I would often wear these purple glasses. I was at amfAR once in Cannes and, as we were getting ready, I lost my vision. I had a red Versace pantsuit and I thought, OK, I am going to wear that because I can’t wear a gown with purple glasses.

My friend Mimi said, I will stand in front of you and I will wave when there is a bid on that side of the room, so you can know and turn your head. I did the auction and I was blind in my right eye. Mimi kept running over where there was a bid so I would turn and know that there was a bid.

It took years for the feeling to come back in my left leg. The doctor who ultimately saved my life is now the director of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona. He told me that when they nicked the nerve when they did the second angiogram, my feeling came back, but it was like I was stabbed in the leg. I was riding in a car and I got this stabbing sensation. It kept happening like that for about a year. My hip was unstable, and I would stand up and be unstable.

But, it all finally came back—my vision and hearing. I am just so blessed. I couldn’t write my name for almost three years. I couldn’t get my arm to listen to my mind. So, I had to learn to read, write and speak. I had a stutter, and no one knew why.

Then, my amazing doctor, Dr. Hart Cohen, who was Glen Campbell’s doctor, found that I had a brain seizure condition and was able to figure it out pretty rapidly. That was why I was able to present an Oscar with John Travolta.

Dr. Cohen found this medication that stopped the seizure activity and stopped my stuttering. I was seeing colors on the floor and the wall was undulating. The medication stopped that.

Great gratitude

I thought I never wanted to tell anybody this because I thought I’ll never work again if people knew what I was working back from. It took about seven years for it all to get straightened out.

I have great gratitude that a director like Steven Soderbergh chose me for a big part (“Mosaic”). And that Marty Scorsese has chosen me for a part (untitled as we write this). I am working with Paolo Sorrentino. I am working with all of these great people.

I refound not only my own physicality. I got through this process because I kept working. I met Willie Nelson throughout this process…He said, “You have to do what you care about. You have a vocation and some people have jobs. When their jobs are done, your vocation will still be there.”

So, I just continue to do all the philanthropic work that I love so much. I made that my career. I am retiring this year from a lot of that, other than the work I do and plan for homeless people with my family.

I am going back to work. Going around the world and seeing people who are in far worse shape than I was, made me very strong.

So yes, I have some insecurity, too, but I also have a strength of character that I probably did not have before.