Bruce Willis diagnosed with aphasia, retires from acting. Updated diagnosis frontotemporal dementia*

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by AKA, Mar 30, 2022.

  1. Grand_Ennui

    Grand_Ennui Forum Resident

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    Estelle Getty from 'The Golden Girls' also had very bad issues with that sort of thing while working on the show... It's said that one reason her character of Sophia carried a purse around a lot of the time is because they had cards with her lines taped to it...
     
  2. Grand_Ennui

    Grand_Ennui Forum Resident

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    That's the thing, your body can be fit, but there's really nothing that can be done with your mind.
     
  3. Classic Car Guy

    Classic Car Guy - Touch the Face of God -

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  4. the real pope ondine

    the real pope ondine Forum Resident

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    I loved him in 12 Monkees, brave, no holds barred performance
     
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  5. MikaelaArsenault

    MikaelaArsenault Forum Resident

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  6. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

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    I wonder if this news impacts the release of the many movies for which Willis completed roles that haven't been released yet.

    It seems ghoulish to put them out now, as it looks like taking advantage.

    But perversely, these movies will do better than they would've otherwise because people will want to see Willis's final performances.
     
  7. Dan C

    Dan C Forum Fotographer

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    I’ve been thinking a bit about it since the sad news came out. I didn’t even realize he was appearing in so many cheap projects. Why would an A-lister do crud like this? I’m guessing it’s simply because he loves the job, and these projects gave him the work with a path of least resistance. Some people simply need a purpose to set an alarm, have some coffee, go to the gym and then go to the office. In Bruce’s case the office is a movie/TV set. It’s just what he does. I can’t imagine how hard it was for him and his family to finally say “it’s time to stop.” Especially with this diagnosis, it must be devastating.

    I’ve been a big fan since “Moonlighting” and so much of his work has given me much joy over the years. I hope his final years are comfortable and happy.

    dan c
     
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  8. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

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    Easy money. Work for 1-2 days, pocket $1 million or more.
     
  9. Dan C

    Dan C Forum Fotographer

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    I think he liked the work more than the money, but that’s just my guess.

    dan c
     
  10. Jeff Kent

    Jeff Kent Forum Resident

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    Bruce used to live in my 'hood, he was a regular at the Target Starbucks in town. He recently sold his house here.
     
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  11. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

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    Then why focus only on crap movies where he worked for a day or 2 and rarely interacted with castmates?

    Why not take on better roles? Why only choose flicks that required minimal time/effort if he enjoyed the gig so much? :confused:
     
  12. swandown

    swandown Under Assistant West Coast Forum Resident

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    Right. But was Willis involved with the planning and implementation of the whole scheme?

    Based on the stories that I've been reading, it seems painfully obvious that Willis was barely aware of his surroundings, let alone being aware of the plan to pocket as much money as possible in a short amount of time.
     
  13. That, and take jobs that allowed him to spend as much time with his family as possible without spending weeks or months away on set. That’s what I’d heard, in any event.
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2022
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  14. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

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    It's really unclear how "out of it" Willis was/is. I don't know how much he had to do with the choice of roles, etc.

    My comment looked at why Willis would've taken these roles if he was "with it" enough to really make the decisions.

    Doesn't seem logical that he'd take these roles in bad DTV movies because he just loved to work so much.
     
  15. Spaghettiows

    Spaghettiows Forum Resident

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    I'm pretty certain that the the producers of these films have no shame and could care less about looking ghoulish or insensitive. In fact, I would bet that they are thinking of ways to capitalize on Willis' announcement right now, knowing that the gig is over. I would be shocked if they didn't try to rush some of these out almost immediately, and plastered with "His final performances!" on every one of them.
     
  16. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

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    The producers of the movies may feel that way, but will the distributors agree?

    Will Lionsgate or whoever has those rights be cool with this?

    I guess we'll find out soon enough, given how many Willis movies remain in the pipeline.
     
  17. kreen

    kreen Forum Resident

    He did all of those cheap B-movies to cash in one last time before he had to retire. He’d make 2 millions for two days of work on each, the parts were undemanding and their under-the-radar release means he didn’t have to do any publicity work for them. It was win-win financially for all involved. The only victims are the people fooled into watching them.
     
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  18. kreen

    kreen Forum Resident

    Some of the remaining ones could have been shot before the ones that are already out, since they’re not necessarily released in the order they were filmed.
     
  19. kreen

    kreen Forum Resident

    It’s a nice thought, but if there is one movie star who looks like they were bored with the actual work of acting, it’s Bruce Willis. Even years ago, before his illness, he was known for phoning in his performances and acting like he didn’t give a crap. It’s been all about the money for a long time with him.
     
  20. Pizza

    Pizza With extra pepperoni

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    I keep thinking about Sylvester Stallone being outraged when Willis didn’t want to do another crappy Expendables movie and called him greedy and lazy. He wanted another million dollars. He’s Bruce Willis. Pay him the extra million. He’s worth it.
     
  21. Aphasia doesn’t usually appear by itself-he either has Parkinson’s, had a stroke or some other brain malady as well.
     
  22. Given his condition it would also be difficult,to carry a picture for the same pay or bigger pay out.
     
  23. the real pope ondine

    the real pope ondine Forum Resident

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    usa
    a lot of actors care a little bit about their image and career/ the don't to go down to making complete garbage. Even Michael Caine would make some bad movies he took for the paycheck and scenery (Blame it on Rio) but at least that had a theatre release and were somewhat competent/ I don't, maybe the two day shoots were all Bruce could handle and the family was trying to help him have a purpose and still work by doing those?
     
  24. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

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    :wave:

    Though I only saw them so I could review them for my site.

    Assuming the remaining Willis films do come out on Blu-ray, I'll skip them. Just feels unseemly to discuss them now, especially since it'll look like kicking Willis when he's down.

    Sure, but this doesn't have anything to do with what the producers/distributors will do with them.

    Even if some of the unreleased flicks were shot before a few released ones, they all fall under the "Willis in bad shape" time span.

    It's not like some were shot in 2012 and sat around a decade. All of the remaining flicks were shot the last year or 2.
     
  25. kreen

    kreen Forum Resident

    They can still be judged as movies. Tony Bennett and Glen Campbell famously toured after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and those shows were still quality endeavors. Even in a reduced capacity, Bruce Willis could have chosen to make quality movies, maybe small parts in indie films. He could have been upfront about his reduced parts in the movies. Or he could have chosen to live with the tens of millions of dollars he already has. Instead he pumped out terrible crap in the hope of fooling viewers into thinking they were watching actual, quality Bruce Willis flicks where he would play a major role.

    We can both be sad about his or anyone else’s disease and be harsh about the product that they are choosing to put out. It’s not charity work in their case, it’s movies they released to make money. We don’t have to go along.
     

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