Actress Gena Rowlands’ son reveals his mother has Alzheimer’s

Notebook Star Gena Rowlands has been living with Alzheimer’s disease for five years, her son, director and actor Nick Cassavetes, said.

Rowlands, 94, starred as the older version of Rachel McAdams’ main character Allie in the 2004 romantic drama – based on the bestselling novel by Nicholas Sparks. Allie ends up passing away at the end of the film after developing Alzheimer’s disease.

“I asked my mom to play older Allie, and we spent a lot of time talking about Alzheimer’s and wanting to be real with her, and now for five years she’s been suffering from Alzheimer’s. ‘Alzheimer’s,” Cassavetes said. Weekly Entertainment.

“She is in complete dementia. And it’s so crazy – we experienced it, she acted out it, and now it’s our fault. Notebook said the director.

Talk to O Magazine in a 2004 interview, Rowlands explained how her mother’s struggle with the same illness impacted her decision to accept the role.

” This last – Notebook It was particularly difficult because I play a character with Alzheimer’s disease,” she said at the time. “I went through that with my mother, and if Nick hadn’t directed the film, I don’t think I would have done it – it’s just too hard. It was a difficult but wonderful film.

Notebook, released in 2004, starred McAdams and Ryan Gosling as Allie and Noah, two young adults from very different socioeconomic backgrounds who fall in love in 1940s South Carolina. After Noah is drafted to serve in World War II, Allie begins a romantic relationship with another man. However, when Noah returns home, it becomes clear that his romance with Allie remains.

Rowlands, who is retired from acting, had an illustrious career in film, television and theatre. She earned two Oscar nominations for her breakout role in the 1974 drama. Woman under the influence and the 1980s Gloria.

She was married to filmmaker and actor John Cassavetes from 1954 until his death in 1989. Besides Nick, they share two other children: the director and Bad English actress Zoe Cassavetes and director and actress Alexandra “Xan” Cassavetes. Rowlands married retired businessman Robert Forrest in 2012.

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Remembering a funny memory of working with his mother on NotebookNick said THIS about how, after seeing the final cut, studio executives asked Rowlands to cry more at the end of the film when her character finally remembers who she is.

“She said, ‘Let me get this straight. We are going to reshoot because of My performance ?’ “, Nick said.

“We go to reshoots, and now it’s one of those things where mom gets upset and I asked her, ‘Can you do it, mom?’ She said, ‘I can do anything,'” he recalled, adding, “I promise you, on my father’s life, it’s true: tears came out of her eyes when she saw (James Garner ), and she burst into tears . And I was like, okay, well, we have. that…That’s the only time I got in trouble on set.