Bruce Willis’ ability to communicate has taken a sharp decline amid his battle with dementia, according to his close friend Glenn Gordon Caron, who is also the creator of "Moonlighting."
Speaking with the New York Post, Caron explained that he had made it a point to try to visit Willis, 68, every month since he was diagnosed with aphasia and then later dementia in March 2022. Willis got his start when he was cast in Caron's 1985 series.
"I’m not always quite that good but I try and I do talk to him and his wife [Emma Heming Willis] and I have a casual relationship with his three older children,” Caron said. “I have tried very hard to stay in his life," he said.
"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," the director continued. "He loved life and … just adored waking up every morning and trying to live life to its fullest."
Caron explained that while he knew Willis was the same person, it was as if the actor was "seeing life through a screen door."
"My sense is the first one to three minutes he knows who I am," he said of visiting Willis. "He’s not totally verbal; he used to be a voracious reader — he didn’t want anyone to know that — and he’s not reading now. All those language skills are no longer available to him, and yet he’s still Bruce."
"When you’re with him you know that he’s Bruce, and you’re grateful that he’s there," he added, "but the joie de vivre is gone."
Last month, Heming Willis admitted during an appearance on "The Today Show" that it's possible Willis isn't aware of his dementia diagnosis.
"It's hard to know," she said.
Heming Willis, who shares daughters Mabel and Evelyn with Willis, described herself as a "care partner" rather than a caretaker as she and her family deal with his diagnosis. She said her husband is "the gift that keeps on giving."
"It's teaching [our daughters] so much on how to care and love, and it's really a beautiful thing amongst the sadness," she said.