Gena Rowlands is an acting legend. The 94-year-old star’s unbeatable career stretches across six decades, with multiple Oscar nominations as well as roles in many classic films.
If you’re of a certain age, it’s quite possible one of the first times you saw Gena on the silver screen was in the 2004 blockbuster romantic drama The Notebook, which was adapted from the book of the same name by Nicholas Sparks.
In the film, Gena portrayed the older version of Allie, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. (Rachel McAdams, as you well know, played Allie’s younger version.)
The Notebook was also directed by Gena’s son Nick Cassavetes. His father was late actor and legendary filmmaker John Cassavetes, who also made several films with Gena like A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Nick revealed that Gena has also been battling Alzheimer’s for the last five years.
“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,” Nick told the publication. “And now, for the last five years, she’s had Alzheimer’s.”
“She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”
As EW points out, Gena’s mother also suffered from Alzheimer’s later in life — and in a 2004 interview with O magazine, she reflected on her role in The Notebook in light of her family history.
“This last one — The Notebook, based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks — was particularly hard because I play a character who has Alzheimer’s,” she said. “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 — it’s just too hard.”
“It was a tough but wonderful movie.”
You can read the entire interview with Nick here.
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