Bruce Willis' Illness: What Is Aphasia, Is it Dangerous?

(Photo : ANGELA WEISS/ Getty Images)
Bruce Willis is stepping aside from his career after being diagnosed with aphasia which clears the rumors that the actor has dementia. What is this disease and is it dangerous?

After being diagnosed with aphasia, actor Bruce Willis is stepping aside from his career, his family said on Wednesday.

Rumer Willis, Bruce Willis' eldest daughter and ex-wife Demi Moore, wrote on Instagram that Bruce Willis' condition "is impacting his cognitive abilities."

Bruce Willis Battles With Aphasia

Aphasia is a disorder that causes you to lose your capacity to communicate. According to the Mayo Clinic, it can impede your ability to talk, write, and interpret words, both vocal and written.

It usually occurs after a stroke or a brain injury, but it can also develop over time as a result of the progression of a brain tumor or a degenerative illness. Willis' family has not revealed the cause of his case. They wrote that they are going through a difficult moment, but that they are doing so as a solid family unit.

Bruce Willis celebrated his 67th birthday only a few weeks ago. On March 19, Moore posted a photo of herself wishing Bruce Willis a happy birthday, adding, "Thankful for our blended family," NBC News reported.

Before his family confirmed Wednesday that Bruce Willis is suffering from aphasia, his fellow actors and directors had been concerned about the actor's conduct for months. There were allegations that the Die Hard star was suffering from "dementia," according to sources.

For the first time in 27 years, Bruce Willis reunited with Pulp Fiction co-star John Travolta for the action film Paradise City last year. The Hudson Hawk star was spotted filming a scene on the beach in Maui.

According to reports, Bruce will portray a rogue bounty hunter who must carve his way through the Hawaiian criminal underworld to avenge his father's murderer, played by John.

Onset, though, Bruce was said to be having cognitive troubles and couldn't recall his lines. To accommodate him, producers were obliged to hire body doubles and reduce the performers' screen time, according to The Sun.

Razzie Awards Apologizes For Previous Treatment to Bruce Willis

In the aftermath of the news that Bruce Willis was diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder that affects one's capacity to interpret or process words, the Razzie Awards and filmmaker Kevin Smith offered apologies for previous criticism of the actor on Wednesday.

After the 67-year-old actor featured in eight straight-to-video flicks in 2021, the Razzie Awards, a spoof on the Oscars that lampoons critically-maligned films, pushed a new category dubbed 'Worst Performance by Bruce Willis in a 2021 Movie.'

Apex, Cosmic Sin, Deadlock, Fortress, Midnight in the Switchgrass, Out of Death, and Survive the Game were among them. Kevin Smith, 51, also turned to Twitter to apologize to the actor and his family for publicly slamming him over his experience working with him on the 2010 film Cop Out more than a decade ago.

Smith complained on the WTF with Marc Maron Podcast in 2011 about working on the film with Willis, saying he "wouldn't even sit for a poster shoot."

The cause of the actor's aphasia has yet to be revealed by his family, this might be due to a variety of factors. It might happen after a head injury or a stroke, or it could be a precursor to a brain tumor or Alzheimer's disease. Patients with the illness are usually treated with speech therapy and taught nonverbal communication techniques.

Willis, who is most known for his roles in the Die Hard series as well as Pulp Fiction, Armageddon, and The Sixth Sense, has been busy in recent years playing in straight-to-video projects. He has filmed at least six additional films, including Die Like Lovers, Corrective Measures, and The Wrong Place, which will be released this and next year, as per Daily Mail.