The beloved 67-year-old action star made 22 low-budget movies in just the last four years.
Bruce Willis has secretly struggled for years to keep making movies while experiencing symptoms of aphasia, a language disorder that affects a person’s ability to communicate.
While shooting the 2020 movie “Hard Kill,” Willis reportedly twice fired a gun loaded with blanks at the wrong moment, terrifying the other actors, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The beloved 67-year-old action star made an amazing 22 low-budget movies in just the last four years, because he knew the curtain was slowly falling on his career and wanted to provide for his family.
In one clip from the movie “American Siege,” you can see a device in his ear, which was apparently used to feed the actor his lines.
In the film “Out of Death,” Willis’ scenes were compressed into a single day of shooting. His dialogue was also kept "short and sweet." Director Mike Burns told the writers, "We need to abbreviate his dialogue a bit so that there are no monologues.”
“I could see that there were times where it was difficult for him to get through something. And there were times where I felt like maybe he had a little bit lost the thread. We would see him getting tired and not able to perform at the levels we were used to,” Burns said.
In an interview for the movie, “Glass,” his speech was low, slow and deliberate.
Bruce Willis' declining memory became a growing concern with his colleagues. On the set of a movie called “White Elephant,” he reportedly became so confused, he asked the cast and crew, “I know why you're here, but why am I here?”
“Aphasia can be caused by previous stunts, something that happened 20 years ago. It can be caused by something more acute — infection, dementia or a tumor,” neuropsychologist Dr. Sanam Hafaez told Inside Edition.
Willis is being cared for by his blended family — his wife Emma, ex-wife Demi Moore and his five daughters. They announced Wednesday that he is stepping away from his acting career after the aphasia diagnosis.
