In a sad case of real life following fiction, The Notebook star Gena Rowlands has been battling Alzheimer's disease for several years now. Her son confirmed the tragic news about his mother.
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Rowlands's son Nick Cassavetes was actually the director behind the 2004 romance classic. He's the one that convinced his mother to inhabit the now iconic role. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Cassavetes revealed that his mother now has the disease that the fictional character she played had. He called the situation crazy and obviously tragic. He's watched as his mother has battled and declined from the disease over the past five years. It's been tough to watch his mother's mental decline, and it's not something he ever prepared for.
Cassavetes said he spent a lot of time speaking with his mother about the disease when she was preparing for the role. Rowlands played the older version of Rachael McAdams' character in the film. Now 93 years old, the actor has experienced a significant mental decline. The director said she has trouble with her memory.
Gena Rowlands Has Alzheimer's Disease
"I got my mom 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 EW. "She's in full dementia. And it's so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it's on us."
Previously, Rowlands opened up about playing the character. She called it particularly tragic and a difficult role to portray. The sadness of the role proved to be a bit too much for her at times.
"This last one — The Notebook, based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks — was particularly hard because I play a character who has Alzheimer's. 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," she told O magazine in 2004. "It's just too hard. It was a tough but wonderful movie."
As far as The Notebook stands, Cassavetes is proud of the movie and the experience he had with his mother, saying it "holds up pretty good" after two decades.
"It's always a shock to hear that as much time has gone by as it has, but it makes sense. I'm just happy that it exists," he told the outlet. "It seems to have worked. And I'm very proud of it."
