Bruce Willis "Stepping Away" from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia.

[thebobmaster]

Bruce Willis “Stepping Away” From Acting Career After Aphasia Diagnosis

"This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support," said the actor's family in a statement posted Wednesday.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

For those who aren't aware, aphasia is basically an inability, in some way, to either understand or communicate speech, which is a bit of a problem for anyone to go through, but especially an actor. Knowing that he is going through this makes his career trajectory over the last few years make a lot of sense to me, and I hope he can enjoy his retirement. Regardless of how his career ended, he always is the only John McClane, and no one can take that away.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Bruce Willis “Stepping Away” From Acting Career After Aphasia Diagnosis

"This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support," said the actor's family in a statement posted Wednesday.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

For those who aren't aware, aphasia is basically an inability, in some way, to either understand or communicate speech, which is a bit of a problem for anyone to go through, but especially an actor. Knowing that he is going through this makes his career trajectory over the last few years make a lot of sense to me, and I hope he can enjoy his retirement. Regardless of how his career ended, he always is the only John McClane, and no one can take that away.

Wow, that really sucks. Hopefully it doesn't worsen and a decent quality of life is sustainable.

After a tragic accident several years ago, my cousin has suffered from aphasia ever since. His vocabulary is literally about 5 words: yeah, no, right and a couple of others I can't recall at the moment. (He managed a "god damnit" while watching March Madness a few years ago, but we've not heard it again since.) What's frustrating and even more tragic is that his mental faculties are all there; he's not suffering from any form of retardation or anything, so he's effectively a prisoner in his own mind completely dependent upon his mother to communicate for him. We've all learned our own way to talk to him, i.e.: asking questions which his extremely limited vocabulary are able to respond to, but that's not satisfactory when trying to engage him in a deeper conversation that requires he speak unlike a defendant on the stand who's been instructed to say as little as possible.

Fun anecdote despite all that, when I went home to Ohio from Texas several years ago, I visited my cousin, and picked him up to go out to eat. While driving on the highway taking him home, I said I was going to take a certain exit, and he responded with a fervent "No! No!" I waved him off saying I knew where I was going and he should just sit back and relax. When I approached the exit I was expecting... it wasn't there. I said aloud "Oh shit, I forgot there's not an exit on that road," and my cousin threw his hands up, looked at me and said "RIGHT!" We both got a good laugh out of that one.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I've taken my fair share of cheap shots at the man for his exclusively awful roles in movies for the past few years, so I do feel quite a bit guilty. Hadn't even heard of aphasia before today. I'm sure he'll have a decent life in retirement.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Very sad to hear. Hopefully he won’t be in pain and can otherwise live a fairly normal, comfortable life. He’s earned it, but it’s too bad his retirement was forced like this.

 

[meiam]

Well if it's just his ability to form speech and he still has his mental faculty that's not too bad cause he was in so many stinker in the last few years it was starting to seem like he wasn't aware of what he was signing on to and was maybe taken advantages by producer/family.

 

[Piscian]

I thought the RLM stuff was pretty hilarious. I don't feel that bad for him outside of normal human empathy because he's a jerk who really took advantage of his name recognition to help scam people out of money. I do not believe for a second that he's some doddering old fool who got taken advantage of. There's plenty of actors who have gone out with much more dignity. I'm strongly suspicious that he could have ended his career with more prestigious roles making more money, he's a good actor, but he isn't particularly liked in the industry for being a notorious prima donna. I don't wish him any ill will, but I also don't particularly care.

 

[BrawlMan]

I thought the RLM stuff was pretty hilarious. I don't feel that bad for him outside of normal human empathy because he's a jerk who really took advantage of his name recognition to help scam people out of money. I do not believe for a second that he's some doddering old fool who got taken advantage of. There's plenty of actors who have gone out with much more dignity. I'm strongly suspicious that he could have ended his career with more prestigious roles making more money, he's a good actor, but he isn't particularly liked in the industry for being a notorious prima donna. I don't wish him any ill will, but I also don't particularly care.

I agree with you. Still sucks it happened, as I was a big fan of Bruce Willis growing up. But even I realize around the time that the second Expendables movie came out, that he just didn't care anymore. It's extra sad, cuz my mom is also a big Bruce Willis fan and still is. So I don't think she knows all of Bruce Willis's stinkers and dirty dealings.

 

[BrawlMan]

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[The Rogue Wolf]

Apparently the Razzies rescinded the "Worst performance by Bruce Willis in a 2021 movie" award they gave him last year in light of the diagnosis. (They did the same with the Razzie they gave Shelley Duvall for The Shining, after it came out that Stanley Kubrick abused her during filming.)

 

[Agema]

Knowing that he is going through this makes his career trajectory over the last few years make a lot of sense to me,

I would be concerned that his reported behaviour goes well beyond just aphasia: confusion, forgetfulness, etc. This suggests to me much wider cognitive decline.

I'd also point out that Bruce Willis' career trajectory dipped a long time ago: it's not the last few years where co-workers have noticed a problem, it goes back across 10-15 years. And many directors report unhappiness that he asked for big fees and had a poor work attitude. It's possible if whatever he's got is progressive it was impacting his work back then, although maybe it only became a big problem quite recently.

 

[thebobmaster]

I would be concerned that his reported behaviour goes well beyond just aphasia: confusion, forgetfulness, etc. This suggests to me much wider cognitive decline.

I'd also point out that Bruce Willis' career trajectory dipped a long time ago: it's not the last few years where co-workers have noticed a problem, it goes back across 10-15 years. And many directors report unhappiness that he asked for big fees and had a poor work attitude. It's possible if whatever he's got is progressive it was impacting his work back then, although maybe it only became a big problem quite recently.

True. I meant the fact that the last few years have shown him putting on...noticeably less effort on-screen. I don't want to say "phoning it in", especially in light of this diagnosis, but he seemed to be acting more because it was what he did than because it was something he really wanted to do at that point, and he never seemed to get the same energy that he had in the Die Hard movies, or even in Expendables 2.