M. Night Shyamalan is opening up about his longtime collaborator Bruce Willis and his fight with frontotemporal dementia.
Shyamalan, 53, shot to fame in 1999 with his breakthrough film The Sixth Sense, starring Willis, and they would team up a year later in 2000’s Unbreakable.
More recently, Willis had a brief cameo in the post-credit scene as Unbreakable’s David Dunn in 2016’s Split, before reprising that role in 2019’s Glass.
Now that Willis, 69, has retired, after being diagnosed with aphasia and later frontotemporal dementia, Shyamalan opened up to People about Willis.
‘He has a very loving family. They’re doing the best they can,’ Shyamalan said at a recent press event promoting his new movie Trap, in theaters August 9.
![M. Night Shyamalan shares insight on Bruce Willis and his supportive family as they navigate his dementia diagnosis 2 M. Night Shyamalan is opening up about his longtime collaborator Bruce Willis and his fight with frontotemporal dementia](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/23/00/83963445-13338361-image-a-1_1713827332226.jpg)
M. Night Shyamalan is opening up about his longtime collaborator Bruce Willis and his fight with frontotemporal dementia
![M. Night Shyamalan shares insight on Bruce Willis and his supportive family as they navigate his dementia diagnosis 4 Shyamalan, 53, shot to fame in 1999 with his breakthrough film The Sixth Sense, starring Willis, and they would team up a year later in 2000's Unbreakable (seen above on set)](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/23/00/83963417-13338361-image-a-3_1713827374111.jpg)
Shyamalan, 53, shot to fame in 1999 with his breakthrough film The Sixth Sense, starring Willis, and they would team up a year later in 2000’s Unbreakable (seen above on set)
![M. Night Shyamalan shares insight on Bruce Willis and his supportive family as they navigate his dementia diagnosis 6 Now that Willis, 69, has retired, after being diagnosed with aphasia and later frontotemporal dementia, Shyamalan opened up to People about Willis](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/23/00/83963403-13338361-image-a-4_1713827419081.jpg)
Now that Willis, 69, has retired, after being diagnosed with aphasia and later frontotemporal dementia, Shyamalan opened up to People about Willis
The director was referring to Willis’ wife of 15 years, Emma Hemming Willis, their daughters Mabel and Evelyn, and Bruce’s kids with Demi Moore – Rumer, Scout and Tallulah.
Willis was already a household name when he signed on to play Malcolm Crowe in Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense, which took the director’s career to new heights.
The film – with its now-iconic twist ending – was a box office juggernaut, taking in $293.4 million domestic and $672.8 million worldwide from just a $40 million budget.
The Sixth Sense celebrates its 25th anniversary in August, with Shyamalan opening up about that film’s impact on his career.
‘At this point, there’s so many generations of people that have watched [my] different movies,’ the director said.
He added some, ‘only know me from [2015 movie] The Visit from then on, so they don’t even know about The Sixth Sense. So when I think about that, it’s wild.’
‘Each movie, I feel this way — that I don’t know if it’ll ever get made. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to make another one… “If this is the last one, I want it to just represent me,”‘ he continued.
Shyamalan and Willis’ second collaboration, 2000’s Unbreakable, was also a hit, taking in $95 million domestic and $248.1 million worldwide from a $75 million budget.
![M. Night Shyamalan shares insight on Bruce Willis and his supportive family as they navigate his dementia diagnosis 8 The director was referring to Willis' wife of 15 years, Emma Hemming Willis, their daughters Mabel and Evelyn, and Bruce's kids with Demi Moore - Rumer, Scout and Tallulah](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/23/00/83963411-13338361-image-a-6_1713827646482.jpg)
The director was referring to Willis’ wife of 15 years, Emma Hemming Willis, their daughters Mabel and Evelyn, and Bruce’s kids with Demi Moore – Rumer, Scout and Tallulah
![M. Night Shyamalan shares insight on Bruce Willis and his supportive family as they navigate his dementia diagnosis 10 Willis was already a household name when he signed on to play Malcolm Crowe in Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense, which took the director's career to new heights](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/23/00/83963413-13338361-image-a-8_1713827669354.jpg)
Willis was already a household name when he signed on to play Malcolm Crowe in Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense, which took the director’s career to new heights
![M. Night Shyamalan shares insight on Bruce Willis and his supportive family as they navigate his dementia diagnosis 12 The Sixth Sense celebrates its 25th anniversary in August, with Shyamalan opening up about that film's impact on his career](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/23/00/83963409-13338361-image-a-10_1713827693332.jpg)
The Sixth Sense celebrates its 25th anniversary in August, with Shyamalan opening up about that film’s impact on his career
![M. Night Shyamalan shares insight on Bruce Willis and his supportive family as they navigate his dementia diagnosis 14 He added some, 'only know me from [2015 movie] The Visit from then on, so they don't even know about The Sixth Sense. So when I think about that, it's wild'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/23/00/83963451-13338361-image-a-11_1713827716051.jpg)
He added some, ‘only know me from [2015 movie] The Visit from then on, so they don’t even know about The Sixth Sense. So when I think about that, it’s wild’
16 years later, fans were stunned when Willis returned in a post-credits cameo at the end of 2016’s Split, connecting that film to the events of Unbreakable.
Willis returned as Dunn alongside Samuel L. Jackson’s Elijah Price a.k.a. Mr. Glass and James McAvoy as Kevin Wendell Crumb a.k.a. The Beast in 2019’s Glass.
Split ended up taking in $278.5 million worldwide from just a $9 million budget while Glass earned $247 million worldwide from a $20 million budget.
Willis retired from movie-making in 2022 after his aphasia diagnosis, with his final film Assassin debuting in 2023.