‘The Notebook’ star Gena Rowlands has Alzheimer’s disease, son confirms
The Notebook and A Woman Under The Influence, is living with Alzheimer’s disease, her son Nick Cassavetes has confirmed.He revealed the news in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, where he discussed the particularly unusual situation he is in, having directed his mother as a woman with dementia in 2004’s The Notebook.Rowlands, who is considered a legend of screen acting, is now 94, and according to her son, she has been living with the condition for the last five years.Cassavetes was giving the interview to mark the 20th anniversary of the romantic drama, in which Rowlands plays the older version of Rachel McAdams’ Allie. James Garner and Ryan Gosling played the older and younger versions of her partner Noah.“I got my mom to play older Allie, and we spent a lot of time talking about Alzheimer’s and wanting to be authentic with it, and now, for the last five years, she’s had Alzheimer’s,” he said.