Bruce Willis ‘stepping away’ from acting due to brain disorder diagnosis
Bruce Willis will retire from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia — a brain disorder that affects his ability to communicate and has caused problems on the sets of films, his family and Hollywood sources said Wednesday.
The 67-year-old star of “Die Hard” and “The Sixth Sense” is “stepping away” from his decades-long moviemaking career after struggling with the condition, his daughter Rumer Willis said in a statement posted on Instagram.
“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,” the statement reads. “As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.”
“This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support,” said the statement signed by his wife, Emma Heming, ex-wife Demi Moore and his other four children.
“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.
The medical condition — which usually occurs after a stroke or a head injury — can impact a person’s ability to speak, write and understand verbal and written language, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The star had struggled with “cognitive issues” while filming recent movies, could not remember his lines and used an earpiece, a source told Page Six.
“It was increasingly difficult to have him on screen,” the source said of a 2020 film. “So they’d use body doubles, not just for action [sequences], but for maximizing his screen time.”
“Everybody knew, the cast and crew. His family has stepped in, they moved in to take care of him,” the source said. “They all knew Bruce was having problems.”
His time on camera was “whittled down” to just three days because of cognitive issues during one project, the source said. “He could not act anymore.”
Willis’ family did not say what caused the disorder in the actor’s case.
But the actor was hit in the head on the set of the action flick “Tears of the Sun” in 2002 and later sued Revolution Studios over the injury, the Guardian reported at the time.
In the lawsuit, Willis claimed he suffered “extreme mental, physical and emotional pain” when he was struck on the forehead by a “projectile” during the detonation of pyrotechnics by the movie’s special effects unit.
The accident reportedly required physicians and medical staff to treat him.
Aphasia sometimes causes people to struggle to find the right words or to speak in short jumbled sentences. It can be treated to some extent with speech and language therapy.
Last year, Willis was given his own special category for the Razzies — parody awards for the year’s worst movies” — after he starred in eight critically panned films in 2021.
Willis, whose career has spanned 40 years, has also appeared in blockbuster films such as “Pulp Fiction,” “12 Monkeys” and “The Fifth Element.”
He currently has several movies in post-production , including “Vendetta,” “Fortress: Sniper’s Eye” and “White Elephant.”
One of his final roles was that of Ryan Swan — a man seeking vengeance on the kingpin who murdered his father — in the action movie “Paradise City,” which was shot with John Travolta in Maui, Hawaii last year.
A rep for Willis did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
