The reaction to Bruce Willis recently announcing his retirement from acting has been swift, and beautiful. Cast members who shared screen time and months on film stages with the gifted Hollywood megastar took to social media to react to the news and pay tribute to the star of Pulp Fiction, Die Hard, and The Sixth Sense. His ex-wife Demi Moore shared the family’s statement to the press, accompanied by some touching personal photos of a young Willis with their children. And now, Willis’ current wife of thirteen years, Emma Heming Willis, has posted a recent picture of the two “in their favorite habitat,” meaning the outdoors, far away from society and the push and pull of a celebrity’s life. Here’s the tender shot:
The film industry still feels like its reeling from the revelation that Bruce Willis is retiring, due in part to the fact that he’s suffering from aphasia, an injury to the brain that can be caused by a stroke that directly affects one’s ability to produce or comprehend speech, as well as the ability to read or write. Details recently emerged regarding the care that Bruce Willis has been receiving behind the scenes to overcome the effects of aphasia. Most of it has to do with seeing the best doctors, and guaranteeing that he has assistants around him at all times to care for his needs.
As you can tell from the photo posted to Emma Heming Willis’ Instagram page, though, the 67-year-old Hollywood star looks as physically fit and happy as ever. Aphasia isn’t eating away at his body or causing a physical deterioration. This has allowed Willis to continue acting in numerous direct-to-video titles such as A Day to Die, American Seige, Apex, Trauma Center, and Hard Kill (which sounds so much like Die Hard, I feel like someone needs to be sued).
None of these would ever be mistaken as one of the best Bruce Willis movies of all time, but they will now hold a place in the actor’s legacy, the final chapter of a storied career that crossed many different genre lines and helped to create one of our last great Movie Stars (capitalized for emphasis, because that term used to mean something once upon a time).
It’s my hope that Bruce Willis manages to stay in our day-to-day lives. Not appearing in lazy direct-to-video dreck where assistants off camera allegedly are feeding him his lines. But more as an ambassador of cool, living his life to the fullest as a husband and father, and casting his influence around the industry that he helped to build up. Social media doesn’t have a lot of worthy uses, but if it helps to remind us that Bruce Willis looks happy and physically healthy from time to time, and allows those who love him to send very sweet messages his way, then it is serving a noble purpose.
