Yesterday, it was announced by Bruce Willis‘ family that the action star would be stepping away from acting. Willis has been diagnosed with aphasia, a neurological condition that affects the ability to speak, write or understand language. Willis has created a body of work to be proud of, but folks who worked on his recent string of films are sharing their experiences with Willis on the set and their concerns.
The Los Angeles Times has posted an in-depth article that highlights alleged aspects of Willis’ more recent productions that signaled a cognitive decline to those working on the films, speaking with “nearly two dozen people” from the set that are said to be concerned about the actor’s well-being.
READ MORE: Bruce Willis Retiring From Acting As Aphasia Diagnosis Revealed To The Public By Family
Accommodations were made for the actor, including scaling down his dialogue as he had trouble remembering more complex lines, and the use of an earpiece during filming. A body double was brought in for scenes involving gunfire after some unexpected blank firing occurred on the set of “Hard Kill” (nobody was hurt or injured) that left actors and crew “shaken.” Complicating productions further, all of Willis’ scenes often had to be shot in just a couple of days.
Director Mike Burns noticed firsthand Willis’ worrisome issues on the set of “Out of Death,” explaining, “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,” Burns told The Times. It was also mentioned that Burns was tasked with compressing all of Willis’ scenes — about 25 pages of dialogue — into one day of filming, which he said was exceedingly difficult as Burns was making his first feature as a director.
Other individuals questioned whether Willis was fully aware of his surroundings on set during filming, where he was often paid $2 million for two days of work, according to documents viewed by The Times. Worth mentioning that Willis was paid such an astronomical fee because he was being used to sell these films on his credibility, fame, and face, which indeed has value to it.