“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,” Glenn Gordon Caron said of Willis, whom he called an “extraordinary person.”
Moonlighting creator, Glenn Gordon Caron, is giving an update on his close friend Bruce Willis amid his ongoing battle with frontotemporal dementia.
In a recent interview with The Post, Caron opened up about how he’s noticed the condition has impacted the actor’s daily life, sharing that Willis is “not totally verbal” and is “incommunicative.”
However, the television producer said the 68-year-old — who rose to fame in the 80s with his breakthrough role on Moonlighting — is “still Bruce.”
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Bruce Willis’ Wife Emma Says She ‘Freaked Out’ When She First Started Researching Actor’s Dementia Diagnosis
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Caron said he’s made an effort to “stay” in Willis’ life, and tries to visit the Die Hard actor about once a month.
“I’m not always quite that good but I try and I do talk to him and his wife and I have a casual relationship with his three older children,” he said. “I have tried very hard to stay in his life.”
“He’s an extraordinary person,” Caron continued. “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 added. “He’s really an amazing guy.”
Despite FTD, the 69-year-old said he strongly believes Willis still recognizes him when they see each other.
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Bruce Willis’ Wife Emma Says She ‘Freaked Out’ When She First Started Researching Actor’s Dementia Diagnosis
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“My sense is the first one to three minutes he knows who I am,” Caron told The Post, adding, “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,” Caron said, “but the joie de vivre is gone.”
All five seasons of Moonlighting dropped on Hulu this week. The comedy drama series — which ran 1985 and 1989 on ABC — starred Willis and Cybill Shepherd as private detectives.
Caron said he spoke to Willis about Moonlighting hitting the streamer, telling The Post that Willis is “excited” the show is now available on Hulu.
“I know he’s really happy that the show is going to be available for people, even though he can’t tell me that,” he shared. “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,” Caron said, adding, “I know it means a lot to him.”
Back in February, Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, along with other members of Willis’ family revealed that the Pulp Fiction star would be stepping back from his career amid his diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia.
The full diagnosis of FTD, which can include aphasia, can bring along with it communications challenges including speaking and writing.
Last month, Emma she gave her first interview since her husband’s dementia diagnosis. See what she had to say, here.
