Bruce Willis‘ friend and director, Glenn Gordon Caron, has said that the actor’s communication ability has sharply declined amid his battle with dementia.
Speaking to the New York Post, Caron said he tried to visit the Die Hard actor almost every month since he was diagnosed with the degenerative disease earlier this year. He does feel that Willis still recognizes him during his visits. Caron created the television series ‘Moonlighting’ which helped Mr Willis rise to stardom in 1985.
“My sense is the first one to three minutes he knows who I am,” Caron told the outlet. “He’s not totally verbal; he used to be a voracious reader – he didn’t want anyone to know that – and he’s not reading now. All those language skills are no longer available to him, and yet he’s still Bruce.”
“When you’re with him, you know that he’s Bruce, and you’re grateful that he’s there, but the joie de vivre is gone,” he added.
Caron first worked with Bruce Willis when he played David Addison Junior in the Moonlighting series from 1985 to 89.
“The thing that makes his disease so mind-blowing is that if you’ve ever spent time with Bruce Willis, no one had any more joie de vivre than he. He loved life and… just adored waking up every morning and trying to live life to its fullest,” said Caron.
Willis’ family revealed in February this year that he suffers from frontotemporal dementia. The announcement was made less than a year after he stopped performing due to his aphasia diagnosis.