Bruce Willis is retiring from acting. The news comes after he's been diagnosed with aphasia, which is caused by damage to the brain and affects a person's ability to communicate, potentially even affecting the ability to speak, write, and understand language. Willis' family shared a join statement to announce the news.
The statement reads, “To Bruce’s amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities. As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.”
It continued, “This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support. We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him. As Bruce always says, ‘Live it up’ and together we plan to do just that.”
- Willis was reportedly having cognitive issues while on the set of recent films. A source is sharing that he couldn't remember his lines and his family stepped in "to take care of him." There was some buzz last year, especially as he made a bunch of B-level action movies, like "Hard Kill" and "American Siege."
- “He was having cognitive problems, they all knew Bruce was having problems,” the source shared. Everybody knew, the cast and crew. His family has stepped in, they moved in to take care of him.” According to the source, he was using “earpieces, hearing things, for them to feed him the lines,” and “it was increasingly difficult to have him on screen.”
- A body double was even used at times. “It became very apparent that he was having problems,” said the source. “So they’d use body doubles, not just for action [sequences], but for maximizing his screen time.” His screen time was even "whittled down" and some films were purposefully filmed closer to where he lived. But, the source claims that “it was becoming super obvious he was having trouble … he could not act anymore.”
Source: https: Variety