Following his retirement from acting due to health difficulties, Bruce Willis has received accolades from Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to Schwarzenegger in a conversation with CinemaBlend
“I think that he’s fantastic. He was, always for years and years, is a huge, huge star. And I think that he will always be remembered as a great, great star. And a kind man. I understand that under his circumstances, health-wise, that he had to retire. But in general, you know, we never really retire. Action heroes, they reload.”
Willis’ daughter Rumer said on Instagram last year that her father was “stepping away” from his work due to aphasia, a condition that impairs language skills.
“We wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities,” she wrote. “As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.”
Willis has always been admired by Schwarzenegger. Author Nick de Semlyen describes how the Austrian actor “guffawed through a screening of the movie at Fox, not least at the moment when McClane exclaims,
‘They have missiles, automatic weapons, and enough plastic explosives to orbit Arnold Schwarzenegger!’” in his new book The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings of Carnage.
