credit @emmahemingwillis
When Bruce Willis’ family acknowledged the actor would retire from his job as a Hollywood actor, living legend, and icon due to his health, the world was shocked. The announcement came in early 2022. Bruce Willis’ illness is called aphasia. According to the Mayo Clinic, Bruce Willis’ illness “is a disorder that affects how you communicate. It can impact your speech and the way you write and understand both spoken and written language.”
Considering his entire career revolves around reading and memorizing lines in a script before turning them into his character’s words, it’s clear why he would retire following his diagnosis. Bruce Willis’ illness is already causing him a great deal of trouble, but it also surprised the world when some of the people the actor’s worked with in the past came out to say they suspect he’s been suffering from this for many years.
Concerns About Bruce Willis’ Illness Before His Diagnosis
Director Mike Burns has worked with Bruce Willis more than a few times on more than a few projects. He’s one of the men most familiar with the way Willis works, and he was shocked by the actor’s mind for many years prior to the family announcing his diagnosis.
Back in 2020, Burns was working on a movie with the actor when he realized he needed Willis’ lines minimized, no monologues included, and he needed the role made smaller. “It looks like we need to knock down Bruce’s page count by about 5 pages. We also need to abbreviate his dialogue a bit so that there are no monologues, etc.” said the director in an email to the screenwriter for the film “Out of Death.” He did not provide more insight into why this needed to happen.
Credit: @emmahemingwillis
“After the first day of working with Bruce, I could see it firsthand and I realized that there was a bigger issue at stake here and why I had been asked to shorten his lines,” he later said. He elaborated that he was asked to be sure the actor would shoot all of his lines in one day – and it happened to be approximately 25 pages of lines. He didn’t know how to make it happen. After the movie, Burns said he could not work with Bruce Willis any longer. The actor’s cognitive abilities were so bad at that point that he could not work the way he did in the past.
Was Bruce Willis’ Illness Hidden for Years?
There is some question about whether Bruce Willis and his family and his team knew of his illness. Meaning long before making the 2022 announcement that he would retire. Of course, it’s pure speculation. However, with the cast and crew noticing a significant decline in his cognitive abilities as far back as 2020, it makes you wonder.
People who did not spend any quality time with Willis noticed the struggle the actor was having. Those who lived with him and spent a significant amount of time in his presence did not? It seems unlikely, but we imagine the family worked long and hard to find a diagnosis, a doctor who could figure out what was going on with the actor, and to figure out how to handle his diagnosis.
At the end of the day, it’s no one’s business how the family chose to handle this with and for Bruce Willis’ illness. They did say he was ‘recently’ diagnosed when they made his retirement announcement in 2022, and we believe it. Diagnosing many illnesses is a long road, even when you know there is a problem. Things must be ruled out. Medications are often tried. Things sometimes have to get worse to get better. It’s entirely possible the family knew the actor’s cognitive issues and spent years looking for a diagnosis and a reason.
Credit: @emmahemingwillis
Wishing Bruce Willis and His Family the Best
“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 his 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,” said the family in a statement. They went on to add, “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.”
We know the family is facing more challenging times as head as his condition grows more pronounced. There are a lot of unknown things happening, and the future is uncertain. We are simply glad someone was able to diagnose the actor and work with him.
Figuring out what was going on was important. We imagine it’s frustrating knowing something is going on but not being able to pinpoint what it is. At this time, we simply offer our prayers and well wishes for Bruce Willis’s illness, the actor, and his family.