Sadly, one of many extra tragic facets of the beloved romantic drama The Pocket book has seemingly come true. Gena Rowlands (93), who performed the dementia-stricken older model of Allie within the 2004 hit, is coping with Alzheimer’s illness, in accordance with her son Nick Cassavetes, who additionally directed the movie.
“I obtained my mother to play older Allie, and we spent numerous time speaking about Alzheimer’s and desirous to be genuine with it, and now, for the final 5 years, she’s had Alzheimer’s,” Cassavetes advised Leisure Weekly. “She’s in full dementia. And it’s so loopy—we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”
Nick Cassavetes is the son of Rowlands and actor-filmmaker John Cassavetes, a pioneer of unbiased cinema finest identified for his starring function in Rosemary’s Child and for steering his spouse in A Girl Beneath the Affect. John Cassavetes additionally solid his mother-in-law, Woman Rowlands (her identify, not a title), in a few of his movies, and he or she, too, struggled with Alzheimer’s throughout her later years.
“This final one—The Pocket book, based mostly on the novel by Nicholas Sparks—was notably exhausting as a result of I play a personality who has Alzheimer’s. I went by that with my mom, and if Nick hadn’t directed the movie, I don’t suppose I’d have gone for it,” Gena Rowlands advised O journal in 2004. “It’s simply too exhausting. It was a tricky however great film.”
Within the movie, the older model of Noah (James Garner) reads the love story of their youthful counterparts (performed by Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling) to his spouse, who by the top has a second of readability and recognises him. It’s doubly heart-breaking, then, when she once more turns into confused and forgets Noah. Within the ultimate moments, the pair die of their sleep holding each other, a bittersweet and really romantic second. We want the Rowlands-Cassavetes household the perfect.
This text initially appeared on GLAMOUR US.
