People Around Bruce Willis Had Him Continue Working Despite Cognitive Decline
The story ⬇️ that sparked the announcement. Some incredible details here of a star’s sad decline and the coordinated (and cringe-inducing) effort to keep him working. https://t.co/QGwJ2aoi0F
- Matthew Belloni (@MattBelloni) March 31, 2022
Bruce Willis worked on 22 movies in the last four years. There were rumors among the general public that he had health issues, but in the film industry it was common knowledge that he was struggling with memory loss and was often confused on film sets. The LA Times spoke to some people who worked with him in recent years and they all expressed concerns about his well being and the people around him.
* Willis could no longer memorize dialogue, so he would wear an earpiece so someone could feed him his lines. All action/fight scenes were done by a stunt double.
*Oftentimes the script would have to be rewritten to remove a lot of Willis' dialogue and shorten lines in order to make it easier for him.
*Several film makers mention actor Adam Huel Potter and assistant/on set handler Stephen Eads. They recall how the two would "cart Bruce around" and keep an eye on him.
*The LA Times found old contracts and discovered that Eads was credited as a producer on all of Willis' recent movies and got a three picture deal with MoviePass Films (which is now defunct). Meanwhile, Potter was guaranteed small roles in all of Willis' movies.
*His management team and agents would make sure that his film shoots were limited to two days and that he could only work for eight hours per day, though he could often only make it to four hours. He would get paid about $2 million dollars for the two days.
* Mike Burns (director of Out of Death) says that he was aware of Bruce's "memory issues", but didn't know how bad the situation was until they started filming the movie in June 2020.
* Burns got offered the chance to direct a second movie starring Willis, but was concerned after what he saw the first time around. He called one of Willis' "associates" and asked him point blank how he was doing. The associate told him that Bruce was “a whole different person ... way better than last year” so Burns accepted the job. Once he got on set, he realized that the person had lied. Bruce wasn't better and had only gotten worse.
*A crew member of the movie White Elephant stated that Bruce was often confused and didn't seem to know where he was or why he was on a film set. Sometimes he would say his lines, but obviously didn't know what they meant. Says that Bruce was being "puppeted" by the people around him.
*Jesse V Johnson, director of White Elephant, says that Bruce's team called with an offer for him to direct two other movies. Johnson spoke with his own creative team and they all agreed that no one felt comfortable with what they had witnessed, so he declined.
*Lala Kent was cast as Bruce's daughter in Hard Kill. She remembers filming a scene in which his character comes in to save her. In the scene, Kent's back is to Bruce. He was supposed to deliver a line that would serve as her cue to duck before he shot the bad guy. Willis, who was holding a gun loaded with blanks, instead fired the gun without saying the line. They reset and the director reminded Bruce to say the line before firing the gun, but the same thing happened on the second take. Several crew members confirm this story, but the film's armorer and Randall Emmett (co-founder of the production company that worked on the movie) deny that it happened.
*Terri Martin, a production supervisor on White Elephant: “He just looked so lost, and he would say, ‘I’ll do my best.’ He always tried his best."
I wasn't sure whether to post this because it's sad and sensitive, but these people deserve to be called out. I hope he's safe and being taken care of.
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