Bruce Willis Is 'Not Totally Verbal' Amid Dementia Battle

"Moonlighting" creator Glenn Gordon Caron has shared an update on Bruce Willis' health amid his battle with dementia. He shed insight into the ways the actor's life has changed after his wife Emma Heming admitted that it is difficult to know if her husband is aware of his diagnosis.

Caron recently told the New York Post that he has "tried very hard to stay" in the actor's life and makes it a point to visit him once a month. He feels that during these visits his friend still recognises him saying: "My sense is the first one to three minutes he knows who I am."

The actor was diagnosed with aphasia in March 2022. But Heming shared earlier this year that his condition has progressed to frontotemporal dementia. Amid Willis' battle with the disease, Caron shared that the actor is "not reading now" whereas he "used to be a voracious reader" but "didn't want anyone to know that". He added that the "Die Hard" actor is "not totally verbal" yet he is still Bruce despite "all those language skills are no longer available to him".

Calling Willis an "extraordinary person," the series creator added that "the thing that makes [his disease] so mind-blowing is [that] if you've ever spent time with Bruce Willis, there is no one who had any more joie de vivre than he. He loved life and ... just adored waking up every morning and trying to live life to its fullest".

"So the idea that he now sees life through a screen door, if you will, makes very little sense. He's really an amazing guy. When you're with him you know that he's Bruce and you're grateful that he's there but the joie de vivre is gone," he shared.

Caron and Willis' former television project, "Moonlighting," which aired for five seasons in the 1980s is now streaming on Hulu. The showrunner believes that the actor is "really happy that the show is going to be available for people" even though he cannot say so.

"When I got to spend time with him we talked about it and I know he's excited. The process (to get 'Moonlighting' onto Hulu) has taken quite a while and Bruce's disease is a progressive disease, so I was able to communicate with him, before the disease rendered him as incommunicative as he is now, about hoping to get the show back in front of people," he added.

Caron's update on Willis comes after Heming admitted during an interview last month that it has been hard on the family seeing the actor battle dementia. She noted that while it is hard on the person diagnosed, the same goes to the family sharing, "And that is no different for Bruce, or myself, or our girls. When they say this is a family disease, it really is".