One of Bruce Willis’ daughters is responding to the outpouring of support her father received after it was revealed that he was retiring as an actor due to health issues.
The Condition That Caused Bruce Willis to Retire: What Is Aphasia?
As Mamas Uncut reported, Bruce Willis is reported to be dealing with aphasia. According to the Mayo Clinic, aphasia is a condition that “typically occurs suddenly after a stroke or a head injury.”
However, “it can also come on gradually from a slow-growing brain tumor or a disease that causes progressive, permanent damage (degenerative). The severity of the aphasia depends on a number of conditions, including the cause and the extent of the brain damage,” the Mayo Clinic reports.
Aphasia affects a person’s ability to communicate. “It can affect a person’s speech, as well as the way they write and understand both spoken and written language.”
It is often treated through speech therapy, as people with aphasia will need to learn other ways to communicate.
Roughly a day after the Willis family released a statement announcing Bruce’s retirement, his daughter Scout issued her own statement. “Yesterday was so surreal, sharing something so personal. I didn’t know how it would be received, there is always an unknown when sharing out so vulnerably into the world,” Scout began.
“I’d hoped for some love and compassion, I truly NEVER could have anticipated the depth and breadth of the love we received as a family yesterday. It kept hitting me yesterday how much love, energy, and prayers were now being sent to my daddio and just humbling me in a way that brings tears as I write this.”
Scout then reiterated how grateful she is. “I am so grateful for your love, I’m so grateful to hear about what my papa means to you. Thank you so much to everyone who reached out to me yesterday, I love and I appreciate you with all my heart, it’s gonna take me a whole to respond to your messages,” Scout concluded.
In a new report by the Los Angeles Times, those who have worked with Willis over the last couple of years have known something was wrong. In 2020, Mike Burns, the director of “Out of Death,” wrote an email to his team suggesting that Willis’ part in the movie needed to be simplified.
Out of Death was one of the 22 films Bruce Willis filmed in a four-year span.
“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,” the email allegedly read. Willis was reportedly “showing signs of decline in recent years.”
While Burns allegedly didn’t tell his crew why this needed to be done, Burns now says it was quite obvious why the first day Bruce was on set. “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 said.
As reports of Willis struggling to remember his dialogue, another actor started to travel with Willis and would feed lines to him through an earpiece known as an “earwig,” the LA Times reported.
Burns added that he is “relieved” that the actor is now “taking time off.” So heartbreaking.
The Razzies, which is an award show that calls out the worst movies, shows, and actors, also resined the award it gave to Bruce Willis for his performance in Comic Sin. He was nominated for 7 other performances as well, CNN reported.
“After much thought and consideration, the Razzies have made the decision to rescind the Razzie Award given to Bruce Willis, due to his recently disclosed diagnosis,” a statement from The Razzies said. “If someone’s medical condition is a factor in their decision making and/or their performance, we acknowledge that it is not appropriate to give them a Razzie.”
While Willis’ wife, Emma, also signed the combined family statement, a source is revealing how she is handling her husband’s health concerns. Bruce and Emma have been married since 2009 and share two daughters together.
A source reportedly told People that his diagnosis has been hard on Emma, as it is “not easy seeing a spouse decline.” However, the spouse adds that Emma is keeping it together for their girls because they “are still so young.” Their oldest, Mable, is 10 and their youngest, Evelyn, is 7.
Willis also had three daughters with his first wife, Demi Moore, Rumor, Tallulah, and Scout. The source also told People that Emma “is working with several professionals to help” her husband, and “has arranged for him to see the best doctors.”
“He has an assistant at home to make sure that he is safe, but Emma takes care of him too,” the source continued. “Because Bruce is older than Emma, they knew that his health might decline sooner than hers. Still, his diagnosis has been shocking for her.”
Our thoughts are will the Willis family as they continue to navigate through this difficult time.