Bruce Willis Reportedly Misfired Guns & Forgot Lines Before Aphasia Disclosure

Actor Bruce Willis is sadly stepping away from acting after his daughter revealed that he has cognitive difficulties caused by aphasia. She disclosed the 67-year-old actor’s struggles in a lengthy Instagram post on Wednesday morning.

Although many fans were shocked and saddened to hear the news, rumors are swirling that those in the industry were aware of his cognitive decline for years.

Allegedly, almost two dozen sources told The Los Angeles Times that the “Die Hard” actor was experiencing clear signs of cognitive decline in recent years. One source revealed that movie staffers were alarmed when he misfired a gun loaded with a blank two years ago. Last year, he reportedly asked what he was doing on a film set, causing concern to ripple through the cast and crew.

The A-list actor was also said to struggle to remember lines and was given his lines through an earpiece known as an “earwig” in the industry. In recent years, the “Pulp Fiction” star had a body double used in most action scenes, especially in scenes that involved the use of prop guns the outlet reported. Although the use of body doubles for action scenes is commonplace in the industry, it seemed that it was done out of precaution for Willis’ health.

Two years ago, while filming “Hard Kill” in Cincinnati, two people told the outlet that Willis fired the gun on the wrong cue. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the movie’s producer has since disputed that the incident occurred. However, the outlet said that multiple staffers were alarmed by the incident, including actress Lala Kent, who played his on-screen daughter.

Kent told the outlet that “I’m about to think my life is about to end and then my dad steps in to save the day.” She said that Willis was supposed to deliver a line that served as her cue before he fired the gun, but he fired the shot without saying the line.

“Because my back was to him, I wasn’t aware of what was happening behind me,” Kent continued. “But the first time, it was like, ‘No big deal; let’s reset.” Director Matt Eskandari reportedly reminded Willis to say the line before firing the gun. However, on the second take, Willis again forgot to say the line.

One crew member added, “We always made sure no one was in the line of fire when he was handling guns.”

However, the film’s armorer denied the incident ever occurred. Randall Emmett – Kent’s former fiancé – also disputed the incident. Emmett told the outlet, “I fully support Bruce and his family during this challenging time and admire him for his courage in battling this difficult medical condition. Bruce will always be a part of our family.”

Mike Burns directed Willis in “Out of Death.” In June 2020, he had sent the movie’s screenwriter an alarming email in June 2020. The outlet reported that he said, “It looks like we need to knock down Bruce’s page count by about 5 pages.”

“We also need to abbreviate his dialogue a bit so that there are no monologues, etc.,” the paper said that he added to the email. They also allege that Burn spoke with at least two dozen people who also expressed concern for Willis’ health.

“After the first day of working with Bruce, I could see it firsthand and I realized that there was a bigger issue at stake here and why I had been asked to shorten his lines,” Burns told the outlet after he started working with Willis for the first time. Burns added that he had to cut all of Willis’ scenes, which consisted of about 25 pages of dialogue, into a single-day shoot out of concern for his well-being.

Burns said that he decided not to do any more work with Willis after filming “Wrong Place” last year. He had apparently been told by another outlet that Willis had been doing “way better than last year.” However, he said that Willis “was worse.”

“After we finished, I said, ‘I’m done. I’m not going to do any other Bruce Willis movies.’ I am relieved that he is taking time off,” Burns told the outlet.

Jesse Johnson, who directed Willis in “White Elephant,” also echoed his thoughts, saying, “it was clear that he was not the Bruce I remembered.”