Bruce Willis wasn’t forced to keep churning out low-budget films after aphasia diagnosis, lawyer says

A lawyer representing actor Bruce Willis has insisted that the star “wanted to work” in the years after it allegedly became apparent to people around him in Hollywood that he was struggling with aphasia, a cognitive disorder that has affected his ability to understand and express speech.

“My client continued working after his medical diagnosis because he wanted to work,” attorney Martin Singer said in response to a new Los Angeles Times report about “wheeler-dealer” producer Randall Emmett. The producer is known for cranking out “low-budget, high-testosterone, assault-gun-and-explosions films” headlined by past-their-prime older white male stars such as Willis, Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson.

The report alleges that Emmett paid Willis millions of dollars to churn out five low-budget action films even after observing the “Die Hard” actor in September 2020 struggle on the set of the movie, “Midnight in the Switchgrass.”

Seven crew members told the Times that Emmett, directing the movie, and his colleagues tried to persuade Bruce Willis to kick open a door. During the late-night shoot, someone coached Willis through an earpiece, a stunt coordinator “gently” attempted to guide him, and Emmett mimed the actions for the actor to imitate, but, “take after take, Willis did not seem to understand,” the Times reported.

That night, a frustrated Emmett called his then-fiancée, Lala Kent, crying.

“I can’t do this anymore,” Kent recalled him saying in a call overheard by two other people, the Times said. “It’s just so sad. Bruce can’t remember any of his lines. He doesn’t know where he is.”

Singer insisted to the Times that Willis was willing and able to work up until recently, “just like many others with aphasia who are capable of continuing to work.” He also credited Willis with attaching his name to those films because that’s how they could get financed. “That resulted in literally thousands of people having jobs, many during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Singer said.

Willis’ family announced in late March that Willis, 67, was “stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him” after being diagnosed with the condition, which also is known to develop in people who have suffered strokes, the Los Angeles Times also reported. Sharing the news on social media, the Willis family said it had been a “really challenging time” for them and thanked fans for their “continued love, compassion and support.”

Shortly after the family’s announcement, the Los Angeles Times reported that Willis’ condition had been an open secret in Hollywood in recent years. Nearly two dozen people who worked with Willis told the Times that the actor had been exhibiting signs of decline and questioned whether he was fully aware of his surroundings on film sets, where he was often paid $2 million for two days of work, the Times said.

“Filmmakers described heart-wrenching scenes as the beloved ‘Pulp Fiction’ star grappled with his loss of mental acuity and an inability to remember his dialogue,” the Los Angeles Times reported. The Times also reported that Willis’ action scenes, especially those involving choreographed gunfire, were filmed using a body double.

If Willis’ condition wasn’t known to the public, film critics and fans of Willis’ work had begun to lament the sharp decline in the quality of his movies over the past decade, wrote Doughlas Laman for Collider in July 2021. Willis could have moved into character roles, like other mature male stars, or taken offbeat roles in acclaimed films by indie auteurs, such as “Moonrise Kingdom” and “Looper” in 2012. Instead, Willis embraced low-budget, direct-to-video projects with Emmett, Laman wrote. Willis and Emmett worked on more than 20 movies together, Emmett later said.

“These films have begun to cultivate a toxic reputation online for plastering Willis’ mug on the posters but then featuring the ‘Die Hard’ lead for a minimal amount of screen time,” Laman wrote. The most recent of those endeavors, “Midnight in the Switchgrass,” drew “special ire” for a performance from Willis that appeared “phoned in,” he said.

The Collider piece noted that Willis had developed a decades-long reputation for clashing with co-stars or being demanding on film sets, but it dated Willis’ most recent career struggles back to 2013 when he was dropped from a high-profile project, “The Expendables 3,” because of a public feud with co-star Stallone over his demands for a large amount of money for a minimal amount of filming.

Willis had a chance to redeem himself with critics by working with Woody Allen in 2015, according to Collider’s reporting. This was in the last few years when Hollywood and top stars still held Allen in high regard, before the #MeToo movement and resurfaced allegations of child sexual abuse derailed the director’s career. After Willis put in a few days of filming Allen’s “Cafe Society,” with Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, the director abruptly dropped the actor from his movie and brought in Steve Carell to replace him, Collider reported.

The official explanation for Willis’ departure was scheduling conflicts with a Broadway show, but reports from Cinemablend, Hitflix and a Twitter exchange between two writers said that the actor had trouble remembering his lines.

After his exit from “Cafe Society,” Willis began working steadily with Emmett, Collider reported. While Willis’ fans despaired over the actor turning up in an “assembly line of movies,” recent public knowledge about his health struggles has raised questions about whether he was being exploited and by whom.

In addition to concerns about Emmett’s working relationship with Willis as the actor’s health declined, Emmett also currently faces allegations of abuse against women, employees and business partners, the Los Angeles Times reported. Emmett has denied these allegations through a spokeswoman.

With regard to Willis, Emmett also denied to the Times that his conversation with Kent occurred or that he was aware “of any decline in Mr. Willis’ health.”

A representative for Emmett also told Us Weekly, “Randall is very proud of the work he and Bruce Willis have done over the last 15 years. In every single movie they have done together, Bruce enjoyed being on set, playing golf, going to dinners, and communing with the crew. If Bruce had not wanted to be on set, he would not have been there. Willis is one of the greatest actors of his time and was sought after by multiple production companies until his recent retirement. Randall counts him among his closest friends.”