The story follows the Die Hard star’s recent aphasia diagnosis
Following the announcement that Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with the rare brain disorder aphasia – an actor who starred alongside him the 2020 film Hard Kill reveals he accidentally shot a prop gun at her during production.
Speaking to the LA Times in light of the star’s recent revelation, 31-year-old actress Lala Kent said that the incident allegedly occurred during a scene in which her character is about to be saved by her dad (played by Willis) whilst her back was to him. However, he failed to give the cue for her to duck.
“I’m supposed to think my life is about to end, and then my dad steps in to save the day,” Kent said, and as Willis failed to deliver the line which would have told her to duck, he instead shot the gun without giving any indication to his co-star and the actress was unable to duck.
She went on to say that “I wasn’t aware of what was happening behind me. But the first time, it was like, ‘No big deal, let’s reset'”. Unfortunately, the same thing happened again on the next take and while director Matt Eskandari would not comment on the situation at the time, a member of the crew remembers Kent being visibly shaken on the day.
A third crew member, whom reports suggest was also not authorised to comment publicly, said he recalled at least one of the instances in which Willis “did fire the gun on the wrong line”, adding that they “always made sure no one was in the line of fire when he was handling guns.”
This obvious bares striking shades of similarity to the recent death of Halyna Hutchins, who died after Alec Baldwin accidentally fired a gun he believed was empty on the set of Rust in October 2021.
This particular anecdote is one of many chronicling the apparent decline of the actor’s mental state in recent years, including urgent requests from directors to make his parts smaller and to give him fewer lines.
Moreover, an actor who travelled with the 67-year-old would apparently feed the star his lines through an “earwig” and despite making his name as an action star, most of his action scenes were now filmed using a double, according to sources.
Jesse V. Johnson, who directed the low-budget movie White Elephant first worked with Willis decades ago when he was a stuntman, said he met Willis for a project last April, realising shortly after: “it was clear that he was not the Bruce I remembered”. With his crew having all been fans of his work, they turned down the opportunity of doing a further two films.
Despite his growing struggles, producers were seemingly still more than happy to use his name to promote the film. Willis is now set to regretfully retire from acting and begin “stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him”.
Related links:
- Amy Schumer ‘triggered and traumatised’ by Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at Oscars
- The Wanted’s Tom Parker dies aged 33 following brain tumour battle
- OJ Simpson weighs in on the Will Smith Oscar’s slap and compares it to his own crimes
