Arkin did also note in 2016 that he wasn’t quite ready to hang up his hat yet, saying, “I feel like I still have something to do. I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t eat at me like it used to.” In the years since, the actor spent his eighties doing plenty, popping up in family-friendly fare like “Dumbo” and “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” making an appearance in a short-lived “Get Shorty” TV show, and earning praise for his turn on the aforementioned Michael Douglas-led Netflix series. Arkin had no shortage of adventures throughout his life, but in his interview with “Talk Easy,” he seemed to think the greatest one might still be to come.
“Having meditated for 50 years, my connection with stuff other than this just-walking-around plane of existence has grown to be something more,” Arkin said. “So I have a fairly good sense that this is not what it’s all about.” The performer cited our ever-evolving understanding of science when it came to thinking about the end, saying:
“I mean, if anybody says this is what it’s all about, they’re insane, because there’s a big universe out there. They just found something like 1,200 new galaxies. 1,200 new galaxies! Having found that out, how do you say that this is it? And when you say this is it, what do you mean? What do you mean when you say this is it? What is what? What are you talking about?”