“Die Hard” star Bruce Willis is stepping away from his legendary acting career after being diagnosed with aphasia, and has reportedly been having cognitive issues on movie sets for years.
In a Wednesday Instagram post shared by Willis’ daughters, wife Emma Hemming, and ex-wife Demi Moore, they announced that the 67-year-old actor was experiencing “health issues” that they were tackling as “a strong family unit.”
“To Bruce’s amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities,” they shared across their multiple social media profiles.
“As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him,” the post continued. “We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him. As Bruce always says, ‘Live it up’ and together we plan to do just that.”
Willis has reportedly been experiencing cognitive issues and had difficulty acting on film sets since at least 2020. The use of earpieces to feed him lines, body doubles to minimize his screen time, and shooting at locations close to his home, were employed to make it possible for him to keep acting.
Aphasia is a condition that often occurs secondarily to a stroke, tumor, brain damage or dementia, and presents by affecting a person’s ability to understand language and communicate through both speech and writing.
The former box office bigshot filmed an uncharacteristic eight back-to-back straight-to-streaming movies, that were so critically panned, that the Razzies gave Willis his own category for “the worst movies of 2021.”
Upon learning of the actor’s ailment, the Razzies apologized for calling out his poorly performing flicks.
“The Razzies are truly sorry for #BruceWillis diagnosed condition. Perhaps this explains why he wanted to go out with a bang in 2021. Our best wishes to Bruce and family,” they posted on Wednesday. “To clarify, we heard about Willis’ diagnosis at the same time everyone else did…just this morning.”
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