Gena Rowlands Has Alzheimer’s, Mirroring Her Character

Gena Rowlands’s life is imitating art in the most heart-wrenching way attainable. The two-time Oscar-nominated actress has dementia, her son, director Nick Cassavetes, shared in an interview with Leisure Weekly. Cassavetes directed Rowlands in the 2004 film The Notebook, in which she performed More mature Allie, a character with dementia whose spouse explained to her their like tale to remind her of their life together. “I received my mom to play older Allie, and we put in a large amount of time speaking about Alzheimer’s and wanting to be authentic with it, and now, for the final 5 decades, she’s experienced Alzheimer’s,” Cassavetes instructed EW. “She’s in entire dementia. And it is so ridiculous — we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.” Rowlands’s mom, Girl Rowlands, also experienced dementia. Rowlands been given an honorary Oscar in 2015 and, alongside her partner, John Cassavetes, is regarded as one particular of the good pioneers of independent film. “Everyone mentioned it need to be hard to function for your son,” she mentioned in 2015 of her time on The Notebook. “I guess when you feel cherished, almost everything is simple.”