Sylvester Stallone And Bruce Willis Are No Longer Speaking
Sylvester Stallone has reportedly not spoken to Bruce Willis since his retirement due to aphasia.
Actors Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis have enjoyed a friendship on the big screen and off the set for many years, but it appears that the two movie stars are no longer speaking to one another. Willis has been battling aphasia, and his family announced his retirement from acting earlier this year, but Page Six reports that Stallone has not spoken to Willis since the latter’s diagnosis was revealed to the world. Although the two remain close after decades of friendship, they have been known to feud from time to time regarding their professional collaborations.
As Sylvester Stallone is currently on a press tour to promote his latest project, the television series Tulsa King, the Rocky actor was recently asked if he had spoken to Bruce Willis lately. Not commenting on his friend’s continued illness, Stallone remarked that Willis has had a hard time as of late and that the two have been “incommunicado” since earlier this year. Willis’ aphasia affects his ability to speak normally, and most patients diagnosed with aphasia notice an inability to understand language and write like they used to.
Bruce Willis costarred with Sylvester Stallone in the 2010 action thriller The Expendables and its sequel The Expendables 2, which featured an all-star cast of male action heroes, including Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The series of films became a notable franchise where Stallone could cast many of his friends in similar action roles that helped define each of their careers in other franchises. However, Bruce Willis chose not to appear in the third installment of The Expendables franchise, which caused a rift between the two buddies that lasted a few years.
Bruce Willis entered negotiations to reprise his role as Mr. Church in 2014’s The Expendables 3 but pulled out of the project over a salary dispute that would have seen the actor film overseas with some of the cast in Bulgaria. According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, Willis would have been guaranteed $3 million for four days worth of filming in Bulgaria on the third installment of the franchise, but the actor demanded a $4 million paycheck instead. When Stallone and the others involved in casting turned down the negotiated offer, Willis dropped the project, and Star Wars actor Harrison Ford was cast instead.
At the time, Sylvester Stallone chose to curse out his friend Bruce Willis on social media by posting comments on Twitter claiming that Willis was lazy and greedy for not accepting $3 million for four days worth of work on The Expendables 3. In the years since, the two appeared to have patched things up a bit, putting some of their differences aside while both actors took on other projects to fuel their professional careers.
However, it seems that Stallone no longer speaks to Willis after the news of his aphasia diagnosis was spread, as Stallone looks to be giving his friend some space while Willis goes through this trying time in his life.
