Red
In this action comedy, based on comic books created by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, Willis plays Frank Moses, a retired CIA hit man. Moses hooks up with a Sarah, a customer service rep played by Mary-Louise Parker, and they spend the rest of the movie on the run from a pack of killers, seeking help from three of Moses’ former colleagues.
It’s a dangerous thing. Because when you’re having fun on the set, it doesn’t always translate into the fun it’s supposed to be…Robert Schwanker did a great job. He really wove it all together.
The Expendables
In the action film, Willis makes a cameo appearance as Mr. Church, CIA leader of an expendable – i.e. older – group of mercenaries sent on a mission to assassinate an evil dictator who has made problems for the US for over twenty years. Co-starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, who also direct the film. On making a sequel:
I talked to Sly and he’s going for all the marbles this time, and he’s going to get everybody in this time. Even Stone Cold Steve Austin who took two bullets in the last film, he’s coming back, too. Hopefully, they’ll start shooting it while we’re young enough to survive.
Die Hard 2 Interview
Willis is interviewed by Arthur Fennell. They talk about his role as John McClane in Die Hard 2, how there is an audience for non-CGI films and how he hasn’t gotten any residuals for a while on The Twelve Monkeys.
It’s not The best one. It’s as good as the first one in terms of the strength and the characters of the story.
Cop Out
In this action comedy, Willis plays policeman Jimmy Monroe. Due to a chain of on the job mishaps, Willis gets suspended from active duty together with his equally useless partner Paul Hodges, played by Tracy Morgan. Monroe and Hodges then redeem themselves by foiling a drug bust. Director Kevin Smith on working with Willis:
He turned out to be the unhappiest, most bitter and meanest emo-bitch I ever met at any job I’ve held. And mind you, I worked at Domino’s.
Surrogates
In this science fiction drama, Willis plays CIA Agent Tom Greer who investigates the first murder in years in his futuristic, utopian community. All the residents live life via remote controlled robot “surrogate” selves, and Willis has to work as his real self after his surrogate is destroyed along with a string of others. Directed by Jonathan Mostow. On doing his own stunts for the film:
One of my favorite shots in the film is where I get impacted by a car – very startling.
!["Surrogates" - Official Trailer [HQ]](https://newslines.org/wp-content/plugins/wp-youtube-lyte/lyteCache.php?origThumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FUGwQ74cH5O0%2F0.jpg)
Willis, Hemming marry
Willis marries Hemming on Parrot Cay, in the Caribbean. Willis’ ex-wife Moore and her new husband Ashton Kutcher are guests, along with Willis’ daughters, Rumer, 20, Scout, 17, and Tallulah, 15. Willis comments before meeting Hemming:
I just haven’t met anybody yet that I want to have kids with. But that’s the good thing about being a guy – it doesn’t matter how old you are.
Willis, Heming marry
Willis and Heming tie the knot in an intimate ceremony in Turks & Caicos. The couple get married after one year of dating.
What Just Happened
In this comedy drama directed by Barry Levinson, Willis plays himself as an actor named Bob who refuses to shave his beard for a movie. Bob’s stubbornness is just one of several personal and professional difficulties producer Ben, played by Robert De Niro, is forced to contend with during the course of the film. Producer Art Linson, whose Hollywood memoir formed the basis for the story line, says about working with Willis:
If you have good actors they bring something to it. And Bruce really did. He took himself seriously. He didn’t just send himself up. He did it with the rage of a guy obsessed with integrity. When he doesn’t want to shave his beard, it just makes me laugh out loud.
Assassination of a High School President
In this adult comedy Willis plays Principal Kirkpatrick, who is involved in a SAT scandal. His corrupt behavior is discovered by the school paper reporter, Bobby Funk – played by Reece Daniel Thompson. Bobby, who initially blames a fellow student for misconduct, must decide whether to expose the principal, or keep quiet and enjoy newfound social status at school. Novice full length feature director Brett Simon:
While filming Assassination there were times when the chatter of my thoughts and the cacophony of the set drowned out my instincts’ pleas. When this happened, the result was always the same: The movie and I would suffer. But when I listened, out came the gifts.
Cozy’s nightclub performance
Willis performs multiple melodies on his harmonica along with his blues band at Cozy’s nightclub in Los Angeles, California.
I Don’t Want To Be In Love performance
Willis performs I Don’t Want To Be In Love at the Kennedy Space Center in Washington, DC.
Live Free Die Hard
In the fourth action adventure movie in the Die Hard series, Willis plays John McClane, a detective assigned to investigate a cyberattack on US government infrastructure. McClane engages the help of a young hacker, played by Matt Farrell, to stop the nationwide destruction before it’s too late. On working with director Len Wiseman:
We both had similar ideas about and similar goals as to the kind of Die Hard we wanted to make. It’s really easy to sit here and talk about the film now because it really did turn out great. …The film rocks. It’s actually one of my favorite Die Hards.
![Live Free or Die Hard (2007) - Theatrical Trailer [HD]](https://newslines.org/wp-content/plugins/wp-youtube-lyte/lyteCache.php?origThumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F8Jz-8UcCiws%2F0.jpg)
Nancy Drew
In this drama loosely based on the Nancy Drew series of detective novels, Willis plays himself in a minor part as a Hollywood actor. Nancy, played by Emma Roberts, searches Hollywood for clues surrounding the murder of an actress and her missing will. Directed by Andrew Fleming. Roberts on working with Willis:
…it was fun. I’ve known him before because I know his kids so it was cool to get to work with him. They were like he’s going to do a cameo in it and I was like that’s awesome. He’s just a great guy. He’s a nice guy and he’s an amazing actor.
Perfect Stranger
0 CommentsIn this drama, Willis plays an advertising executive named Harrison Hill, who is suspected of murdering a woman. Co-star Halle Berry plays the victim’s friend Rowena Price, who decides to investigate the murder under the cover of a false identity. The film is directed by James Foley. Berry says about Willis:
When I got this movie, we talked about who would be the right Harrison Hill and who’s charismatic and charming. Men have to root for him and women have (think that) its okay (for him to be cheating). Simultaneously, we all said “Bruce Willis” and I said, “It’s funny—he’s my next door neighbor. Why don’t I just (give) him the script.” I did (give it him). I said, “Here, read this. If you love it, I’ve love for you to be in it. If you don’t, forget I ever came over here and I’ll never do this again.” In a day, he called back and said, “I love it. I really want to do it.”
Grindhouse: Planet Terror
0 CommentsWillis plays Lt. Muldoon who leads an army squadron on a hunt for a supply of biochemical gas that turns exposed people into flesh-eating zombies. Muldoon himself has been infected with the gas and can only delay his mutation into a zombie by constantly inhaling more of it. Director Robert Rodriguez explains his use of a “missing reel” in the screening:
I thought, “I have to take real advantage of the missing reel because all the questions that need answering get answered in that reel.” So the movie doesn’t have to make perfect sense. Exactly what is Bruce Willis’s character up to? I don’t know, it was all explained in that reel.
The Astronaut Farmer
0 CommentsIn this family drama starring Billy Bob Thorton as a defunct astronaut candidate determined to build and launch a homemade space rocket, Willis makes a brief appearance as veteran astronaut Colonel Doug Materson. The film is directed by Michael Polish. Thorton says about casting Willis:
The studio wanted a movie star for the cameo role. I said that I thought Bruce would be great for this. Bruce will do something like this for his friends if he likes it. He loved the script and he came to New Mexico to do it.
Alpha Dog
0 CommentsIn this drama based on true events, Willis plays Sonny Truelove, father of Johnny Truelove, the leader of a drug ring – played by Emile Hirsch. When one of Johnny’s dealers, Jake Mazursky (played by Ben Foster) runs up a debt, he orchestrates the kidnapping and murder of Jake”s younger half-brother Zack (played by Anton Yelchin) . Director Nick Cassavetes:
I think the film does comment on some of the possible causes for how this situation came to be, one of which is expressed by Bruce Willis very early in the film, that the whole thing is about parenting.
Fast Food Nation
0 CommentsIn this drama inspired by Eric Schlosser’s 2001 non-fiction book by the same name, Willis plays Harry Rydell, a meat supplier for fast food burger chains. Rydell appears in just one scene, during a meeting with Don Anderson, played by Greg Kinnear. Don is a marketing man for “Mickey’s” restaurant chain, who travels to Colorado to investigate rumors of meat contamination. Director Richard Linklater:
I just sent him the script. I just kinda needed somebody like Bruce Willis. I’ve had friends who had worked with him. I didn’t know him, but I had a hunch that he might dig that part. I was lucky. I guess he wasn’t doing anything else that moment—it was only for one day.
Over the Hedge
0 CommentsIn this computer animated film for children, Willis provides the voice for RJ, a raccoon who leads his animal friends on a food foraging in an adjacent housing complex. Directed by Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick.
It’s the hardest theatrical experience I’ve ever attempted—really. You take away all of the actor’s tools. There are no props, no other actor to work with. You’re just doing your lines and they continually change. It was like flying. I don’t know. I can’t think of a difficult enough metaphor for how hard this was.
16 Blocks
0 CommentsIn this crime thriller directed by Richard Donner, Willis plays Detective Jack Mosley, who is assigned the task of accompanying a criminal for sixteen blocks to a grand jury hearing. On the way, Mosley and the prisoner Eddie Bunker, played by Mos Def, are repeatedly ambushed and shot at by corrupt members of the police force who want to prevent Bunker from testifying. On repeatedly acting as a police officer in films:
These guys don’t get paid anything. Yet they go out there and do it and there’s not a lot of them out there, and they are the last line between us and the…chaos that’s out in the world. All these guys — cops, EMT workers, men and women, emergency room doctors and nurses and people that every night have to see horrific things — there should be thousands of films done about these guys. And they should get paid more money.
