Bruce Willis ‘wants interview’ after aphasia diagnosis
An insider has claimed Bruce Willis is considering an interview about his struggles with the brain disorder that forced him to step away from acting.
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Bruce Willis wants to do an interview with TV pal Diane Sawyer about the cognitive condition which has forced him into retirement, sources have claimed to The Sun.
The beloved 67-year-old actor’s relatives announced on Thursday that he is retiring from acting because he suffers from a brain disorder called aphasia.
Insiders revealed to The Sun that Bruce had secretly been struggling with cognitive issues for almost 20 years before it finally ended his action hero movie career.
Now a source says that the Die Hard star is eager to tell the story of his struggle in an interview alongside ex Demi Moore and current wife Emma Heming.
And he is believed to have considered the legendary TV interviewer as the one to help him tell his story – while also being open to the idea of a documentary.
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“Over the years, Bruce has considered tapping a friend like Diane Sawyer to interview him, Emma, and Demi about his condition, but the opportunity to keep working usually got in the way of planning something like that,” a source said.
“It could still happen though because Demi and Emma want other families to know what they’ve been going through and provide some educational value to the whole situation, now that it’s more public.
“But with everything with Bruce now, it has to be handled sensitively and nobody wants him to turn into a circus sideshow.”
The insider concluded: “If they can do an interview – or even a documentary project – that will help other families without humiliating theirs, they will do it.”
Bruce and Diane, 76, have a long history of onscreen interviews – with the A-lister once telling her on air: “I’ve always had a crush on you.”
He also opened up to her in 2006 about his efforts to find love on the dating scene after his marriage to actress Demi ended.
Demi, 59, who remains very close with Bruce, also gave a tell-all interview about her turbulent past in 2019.
The Sun’s source revealed that Bruce had hoped a healthy lifestyle would keep his cognitive issues at bay.
Aphasia is a language disorder which affects a patient’s ability to express and understand written and spoken language.
It can happen suddenly after a stroke or head injury, or develop slowly from a brain tumour or disease.
‘Slow, steady decline’
“Bruce has held out hope that somewhere along this long journey, things might plateau, or even reverse themselves, if he kept healthy, watched his diet and did everything he could to keep his mind sharp,” the insider said.
“But it has been a slow, steady decline over the last ten years and in acting, and even during his stage run on Broadway in Misery, Bruce resorted to using lines fed to him over an earpiece, which lead to some ridicule and bad press.
“It’s sad because the guys still wants nothing more than to put a smile on the faces of people who show up to see him work.
“This transition is happening now because Bruce just can’t quite pull off the ‘earpiece acting’ anymore.
“It’s not a death sentence, it just means he’s going to be focusing full time on his health and not spending all that time going back and forth to shooting locations.”
Asked for comment, a rep for Bruce said: “There are no plans to do any interviews with anyone at this time.”
This article originally appeared in The Sun and was reproduced with permission
Originally published as Bruce Willis ‘wants interview’ after aphasia diagnosis
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