Bruce Willis' first signs of dementia as daughter says family missed symptoms

16 August 2023 , 12:18

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Bruce Willis' first signs of dementia as daughter says family missed symptoms

Bruce Willis' first signs of dementia included forgetting lines while on set, it has been said.

The actor was diagnosed with Aphasia at first which then progressed to dementia, with symptoms starting years ago. His youngest daughter Tallulah recently admitted her dad's symptoms had been missed by the family before his other daughter Rumer announced in an Instagram post on March 30 that the star had been diagnosed with a serious cognitive condition and would be stepping away from acting.

Since then, Bruce's colleagues have talked about some of the earliest signs that the actor was struggling with aphasia. The 68-year-old is said to have been filming the M. Night Shylaman film Glass in 2017 and 2018, when two production sources said the actor appeared "slightly off".

Bruce Willis' family say they missed early signs of his dementia (Getty Images)

Page Six reported that a source said: "Bruce seemed a little confused at times and needed a little more help with his lines. This was the first time that I had heard anything about his health. At that point it seemed that he was a little off. We thought it could be anything from ageing to maybe even being a little drunk—common mistakes that people make when seeing the first signs of anything like dementia—to just not wanting to be there. In reflection, Bruce may have been struggling with all of this back then."

Another incident happened years later when Bruce was filming a scene in Hard Kill in January 2020. Actor Lala Kent talked about a time when Willis, who was playing the role of her father, was supposed to come up from behind and rescue her from danger.

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She told the Los Angeles Times that Bruce missed out a line which was meant to act as a cue for Kent to duck before firing a prop weapon and instead fired the gun early before she could get out of the way.

"Because my back was to him, I wasn't aware of what was happening behind me. But the first time, it was like, 'No big deal, let's reset,'" Kent explained.

However, even after she asked director Matt Eskandari to go over lines and the scene again with Willis before the next take, he again fired the weapon without delivering the line.

Charlotte Everett