Caron provided the “Die Hard” star’s latest health update while discussing this week’s streaming debut of the 1980s prime-time dramedy, which starred Cybill Shepherd and an up-and-coming Willis.
The Emmy-nominated producer, who faced years of rights-clearing hurdles to get the detective series to Hulu, said Willis is really happy that the series is now available to wider audiences, “even though he can’t tell me that.”
“When I got to spend time with him we talked about it, and I know he’s excited,” Caron, 69, told the New York Post.
The Emmy-nominated producer said that the process of getting Willis’ breakout series to streaming took “quite a while” (largely due to the high cost of clearing the rights to the music used in the show). But he was able to communicate with Willis about getting the beloved series to viewers “before the disease rendered him as incommunicative as he is now.”
“I know it means a lot to him,” said Caron. The producer told the Post that he tries to see the “Pulp Fiction” actor every month or so and is in touch with Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, and his three eldest daughters with ex-wife Demi Moore.
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The “Bull” and “Medium” producer, who worked with Willis for five season of “Moonlighting,” has tried to stay part of his life and believes that the action hero still recognizes him when he visits.
“He’s an extraordinary person. 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’s really an amazing guy.”
Willis’ joie de vivre “is gone” now, Caron said, adding that the “Armageddon” actor is “not totally verbal.” Nor is the once-voracious reader reading anymore because “all those language skills are no longer available to him.”
In March 2022, “The Sixth Sense” and “Armageddon” star’s family revealed that Willis would be “stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him” after struggling with aphasia, a cognitive disorder that impairs his ability to communicate.
The announcement came after Willis’ health issues had been a concern for many who worked with him in recent years, with some questioning whether the action star was fully aware of his surroundings on set. Some described heart-wrenching scenes as Willis grappled with his loss of mental acuity and an inability to remember his dialogue, The Times reported previously.
In February, Willis’ family announced that he had been diagnosed more specifically with frontotemporal dementia, a degenerative brain disease that currently has no cure.
Last month, his wife, a skincare and wellness influencer who has since become Willis’ caregiver, said that “it’s hard to know” if Willis is aware of what’s going on with his health.