This past week, actor Bruce Willis has received an outpouring of love from friends, fans, and family regarding his recent diagnosis of Aphasia, an illness that affects one’s ability to communicate.
With this love has come a reconsideration of past events, people coming to forgive him for his strange or awkward moments as this diagnosis allows for a bit of re-contextualizing, and showing just how long he’s been suffering.
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Actor Bruce Willis was recently diagnosed with aphasia.
Aphasia is an illness caused by trauma or damage to the specific part of the brain that controls “language expression and comprehension”, leaving the one suffering from it unable to “communicate effectively” with others.
In the wake of this diagnosis, Willis’s family announced that he would be retiring from Hollywood.
Some have suspected something has been up with Willis for some time now.
Director Mike Burns, who worked with Willis on 2021’s Out of Death , recalled having to scrap more than five pages of his dialogue.
Jesse V. Johnson, who directed Willis in the upcoming film White Elephant , also noticed the actor struggling considerably with confusion and said he “was not the Bruce I remembered.”
Fans have also started thinking about Willis’ history in the context of this diagnosis.
Though no one knows how long he’s actually been affected by aphasia, it’s possible that it could have been developing over years. With this knowledge, people have been looking back at some of his stranger moments and wondering, could these have been due to the early effects of aphasia?
There’s one interview in particular that fans have reflected on.
It was a 2013 promotional interview for Red 2 where he and Mary Louise Parker were being interviewed by Jamie Edwards, A.K.A. Showbiz Jamie.
The interview started light enough, but Willis seemed to rapidly become agitated, saying, “Has any actor ever told you this Jamie, that this part is not acting what we’re doing right now, you might be, but we’re just selling the film now. The fun part was making the movie.”
He also gave a few nonsensical answers that left people very confused.
When asked what his favorite location to shoot during the film was, he answered Istanbul, which was not a location they went to for filming.
He also seemed to disparage the movie, making the strange claim that he “would slash [his] hooves” to sell the film to audiences, whatever that means.
Parker notably stepped in several times to try to steer the conversation back towards the movie.
After Willis’s “slash my hooves” comment, for example, Parker interjected to say that “it has a little bit of everything: romance, action, comedy.”
At the time, fans considered the interview awkward at best.
The tension was heavy and it seemed that Willis didn’t want to be there at all. Many congratulated Jamie on his ability to keep it flowing as well as he did.
However, given the recent news, his odd behavior might have an explanation.
Newer comments on the video of the interview are sympathetic towards Willis’ struggles, recognizing the probable cognitive issues he was having.
“Well, it’s clear now he was having cognitive issues even as far back as this,” one person wrote. “Poor man. It’s sad how this was kept a secret for so long and everyone mistook it for rudeness or weirdness.”
One comment, in particular, laid it all out beautifully.
Commenter Laura C wrote, “This is so sad to watch today with the news that Bruce Willis is battling cognitive dysfunction and will be retiring. He was labeled difficult and confused when this interview was first posted, I think now we know why, his cognitive issue is were already apparent in retrospect. So funny, so talented, Bruce Willis is a gem and I hope for the best for he and his family.”
As do we here at Diply.
h/t: The Things
