Before Barbie, there was Bruce. You might not have known this about Hollywood icon Bruce Willis, but the Die Hard star was a trendsetter, rocking pink fashions while promoting movies long before Barbiecore took over the film industry. This throwback photo comes to us from Willis’s wonderful wife Emma Hemming Willis, who has used social media to share her experiences with the A-lister (and keep fans up to date on his health condition). The image in question comes from an interview that Willis was doing on behalf of the first Die Hard movie. And since that film came out in 1988, you can argue that there’s more Miami Vice in this outfit than there is Barbie. Take a look:
Emma Heming Willis posted this amazing photo to her Instagram story, commenting about how much there is to love in the image, starting with the pink suit. But as I mentioned, in the 1980s, Don Johnson made the pink suit more than fashionable thanks to the primetime television series Miami Vice. And weirdly enough, Bruce Willis appeared on Vice in the very early stages of his career, playing a criminal who eluded capture.
It’s worth watching the interview that is referenced in that IG story. It shows a very young Bruce Willis promoting his upcoming film, Die Hard. And you can tell how excited he is, mainly because he’s still the Moonlighting guy, and has yet to catapult into the stratosphere courtesy of the greatest movie of all time . . . as well as one of the best action movies ever made.
Die Hard turned Willis into a global superstar. It also changed the way that Hollywood thought about action heroes. In the years leading up to the release of Die Hard, action movie stars looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. Willis and his blue-collar hero John McClane promoted an age of relatable, recognizable silver-screen heroes. If McClane could pull off the impossible, audience members started to believe that they could do these things, as well.
Bruce Willis has since retired from professional acting, due to his ongoing battle with aphasia, which affects his ability to communicate. His retirement has brought out the best from his one-time competition (but lifelong friends) such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. Fellow actors that worked closely with Willis over the years also are speaking out about the impact he had on their careers, and their lives. It’s our hope that Emma Heming Willis continues to share these very special throwback photos of Bruce Willis, as this is how we will remember him, forever.
Willis isn’t making movies, but many will try to follow in his footsteps, including Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, and Harrison Ford. Keep track of the features they have coming up by using our guide to upcoming 2023 movies that will be in theaters between now and the end of the year.
