Gena Rowlands of The Notebook reveals she has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s
Gena Rowlands has announced that she has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
It has been revealed that Rowlands, 94, best known for her appearances in the films Gloria and The Notebook, is suffering from the degenerative disease.
Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that impairs memory, thinking, and behavior, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. The symptoms, which include serious memory loss and social skills, gradually become severe enough to interfere with daily chores.Nick Cassavetes,
the actress’s son and director of the 2004 Nicholas Sparks adaption starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, spoke with Entertainment Tonight about his mother’s illness.
«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 the media organization. «She has full dementia. And that’s so crazy—we experienced it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.»
Rowlands played the older version of McAdams’ role in the successful film, depicting the heroine battling Alzheimer’s while her longtime boyfriend Noah — played by Gosling and, in later years, James Garner — read her the love story.The most devastating aspect of it all is that it eventually reveals that it is about Allie and Noah’s romance.
