Bruce Willis– kids, I saw him off Broadway in “Fool for Love” back in the 80s. He was a super theater actor, and will acquit himself nicely in “Misery” coming to Broadway this fall with Laurie Metcalfe.
But Bruce’s Broadway debut will be eclipsed by that of his daughter Rumer Willis. She starts September 14th in “Chicago” as Roxie Hart.
“I’m so proud of her,” Bruce told me Friday night at the premiere of “Rock the Kasbah.” He plays a kind of jaunty vigilante who helps Bill Murray from starting World War III in Afghanistan over a TV singing competition.
“Here’s a scoop no one knows,” Bruce told me. “Rumer just finished a role in ‘The Bombing.’ I had nothing to do with it. They cast her as a nurse. She said to me, I’m going to be in a Chinese movie. I said, So am I? Then I said, How many Chinese movies are there? Wait a minute.”
“The Bombing” is being produced by our old ‘friend’ Mel Gibson, who’s also acting as art director. The actual director is Xiao Feng.
“Now you can ask, how many fathers and daughters have been in movies together and didn’t even know it?”
Bruce, by the way, had only nice things to say about Woody Allen. Willis just dropped out of Woody’s new movie a day into shooting. “He’s a great guy, a great guy,” Bruce said. “Maybe next time.” It was just too hard to prepare for “Misery” and shoot a movie at the same time–particularly when your daughter is beating you to a Broadway debut. Steve Carell stepped in and replaced him.
I can tell you that Bruce, a musician who’s had bands and videos and even a minor hit record years ago, was pretty impressed Friday night by that murderer’s row of rock stars at East Hampton’s Blue Parrot: McCartney, Bon Jovi, Springsteen, Mellencamp, Roger Waters, and Jenny Lewis. He stayed til the end, chatting them all up and vice versa.
