Bruce Willis Missed Cues Firing a Gun on Set, Had Lines Cut Back as Health Declined

thewrap.com:

announced Wednesday that the actor is stepping away from acting after being diagnosed with the cognitive disorder aphasia, but new reporting suggests that Willis’ health decline was affecting his work on the set of recent films.In January of 2020 on the set of the film “Hard Kill,” actress Lala Kent told the Los Angeles Times that Willis twice missed his cue to fire a gun.

The actress said she asked the film’s director, Matt Eskandari, to remind Willis to say his line before firing the gun, but on two takes Willis fired the gun before delivering the line, taking the actress by surprise. “Because my back was to him, I wasn’t aware of what was happening behind me.

But the first time, it was like, ‘No big deal, let’s reset,’” she said.In recent years, Willis had been making a slew of direct-to-video films, and the director of one of those films – “Out of Death” director Mike Burns – told the LA Times that he was asked to compress Willis’ work in the summer of 2020. “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 Los Angeles Times, as he revealed he was tasked with capturing about 25 pages of dialogue for Willis in just one day of filming.Burns said he was reluctant to direct another Bruce Willis movie, but was assured by one of Willis’ associates that the actor was in a better place.

When he showed up on set to start shooting “Wrong Place” in October of 2021, Burns said, “I didn’t think he was better; I thought he was worse … After we finished, I said: ‘I’m done.