Photo: Getty Images
Bruce Willis’ family announced that he has been diagnosed with a brain condition called aphasia.
In a statement on social media, the veteran actor's family said that he had been diagnosed with aphasia, a brain condition that affects his ability to understand language, and will be stepping away from acting.
Willis has been struggling with cognitive issues on the sets of his films for years and even needed an earpiece to feed him lines.
A source said Bruce’s declining cognitive ability had been an open secret in Hollywood and Bruce repeatedly had trouble acting in his films. The source said, “Everybody knew, the cast and crew.” He would uses “earpieces, hearing things, for them to feed him the lines" and it “was increasingly difficult to have him on screen.”
The films had to be made closer to where Willis lived with his family to make productions easier.
In at least one production, the source said, producers began using a body double to increase Bruce's screen time, while in another his screen time was cut down, with Bruce shooting on set for only 3 days.
According to the National Aphasia Association, the condition is an impairment of language, affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write. The condition is always due to injury to the brain, most commonly from a stroke, particularly in older individuals. Head trauma, brain tumors or from infections can also cause aphasia.
The only treatment is speech and language therapies, with involvement from family members, but even with that, the condition could worsen.
Source: Page Six, TMZ.
Photo Credit: ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images.