You’ve got a brand-new book out called True Strength, talking about the series of strokes you experienced while shooting the Hercules series.  Give us an update on your condition. 

Doing fine.  Staying busy.  Just finished a movie in Baton Rouge.  Got to go to the LSU game.

I went to my first game in Death Valley when I was about three.

Oh man, there’s nothing like that stadium there.  One for the bucket list.

You continued to shoot Hercules after the strokes and were even able to keep your illness a secret.  How did you pull that off?

Suddenly I was awake.

“Don’t move.”

The words seemed to come from inside my head, low and emphatic.

What was that incessant, droning sound? I was falling backward, but I was not moving.

“Don’t move.”

I flexed my toes, balled my fists, and counted the tubes in my arms and in my groin, remembering the strict instructions not to reposition myself no matter what, because I might bleed out. That’s right . . . bleed out.