Kelsey Grammer plays the President of the United States opposite Kevin Costner's everyman voter in the new political comedy 'Swing Vote,' and -- for the first time on camera -- the veteran star has a dramatic health update for our own Mary Hart almost two months after his reported mild heart attack.

"We originally said it was just a mild heart attack, and it actually wasn't very mild," Kelsey informs Mary. "They had to blast me twice and get me started all over again."

In the last weekend of May, Kelsey suffered a mild heart attack after paddleboarding with his wife Camille near their home off Hawaii's Kona coast. He was flown to a hospital in Honolulu and released several days later. But it turns out Kelsey had a near-death experience.

"[My heart] stopped, and Camille was patting my head and she said, 'That's when you looked up at me and said, 'I'm going now.' And then off I went. And then she said, 'I'm going to need to zap him.'"

"It felt like somebody was actually trying to tear my chest apart with, like, the jaws of life," explains Kelsey about the "zapper" experience, adding, "As I lay there dying, I said, 'Please, I cannot do this. I don't want to see anything; I don't want to see any light; I don't want to have any little adventures that make me want to get out of this life -- I need to finish this one.'"

Kelsey says he's "doing fine" now, and taking it slow in terms of exercising ("I'm playing a lot of Wii"). "Obviously you play the hand you're dealt," he says, "and it has been a very interesting hand lately; it has been tough."

In theaters August 1, 'Swing Vote' positions Costner as a single father and loveable loser who is unwittingly placed in the national spotlight when the presidential election -- between Kelsey's incumbent republican president and Dennis Hopper's democratic candidate -- comes down to his vote.

"That still-quiet moment that I think is a sacred moment -- when a person closes the curtain and makes their choice -- is the one that determines everything," says Kelsey about the presidential election process.

And Mary has a cameo in the movie playing herself! Kelsey tells her with a smile, "You steal the show during your time in the film."

Watch ET for more of Mary's interview with Kelsey!