Actress Gena Rowlands has Alzheimer’s disease, her son, director Nick Cassavetes, has revealed.
Cassavetes shared the news in a conversation with Entertainment Weekly about the 20th anniversary of their film, The Notebook.
Rowlands, an acclaimed two-time Oscar-nominated actress with more than 100 film and television credits to her name, was directed by her son in The Notebook. She played the older version of the lead, Allie (played by Rachel McAdams), who was living with Alzheimer’s in the story.
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“I got my mum to play older Allie, and we spent a lot of time talking about Alzheimer’s and wanting to be authentic with it, and now, for the last five years, she’s had Alzheimer’s,” Cassavetes told the publication.
“She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”
A representative for Rowlands confirmed that Cassavetes “speaks for the family”.
Rowlands’ own mother, actor Lady Rowlands, also struggled with the disease.
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“This last one — The Notebook, based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks — was particularly hard because I play a character who has Alzheimer’s,” Rowlands told Oprah’s O Magazine in 2004.
“I went through that with my mother, and if Nick hadn’t directed the film, I don’t think I would have gone for it — it’s just too hard. It was a tough but wonderful movie.”
Rowlands, who received an honorary Oscar in 2015, made 10 films with her husband, John Cassavetes, including 1974’s A Woman Under the Influence and 1980’s Gloria.
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She was Oscar nominated for both performances. She also won four Emmy awards. Her last credited performance was the 2014 comedy Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.
According to the US National Institute on Ageing, “Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills” and it is the most common cause of dementia among older adults.
– Reported with Associated Press and CNN.
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