NEW YORK (AP) — The celebrated actor and honorary Academy Award recipient Gena Rowlands is affected by Alzheimer’s illness, her son, the filmmaker Nick Cassavetes, has revealed.

Cassavetes, in an interview with Leisure Weekly printed Tuesday, mentioned Rowlands has had Alzheimer’s for 5 years. Within the 2004 movie “The Pocket book,” Cassavetes directed his mom, who performed the older model of the character performed by Rachel McAdams, as a lady with dementia.

“We spent lots of time speaking about Alzheimer’s and eager to be genuine with it, and now, for the final 5 years, she’s had Alzheimer’s,” Cassavetes mentioned. “She’s in full dementia. And it’s so loopy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”

A consultant for Rowlands confirmed that Cassavetes “speaks for the household.”

Rowlands, who obtained an honorary Oscar in 2015, made 10 movies together with her husband, John Cassavetes, together with 1974’s “A Lady Beneath the Affect” and 1980’s “Gloria.” She was Oscar nominated for each performances. She additionally received 4 Emmy awards. Her final credited efficiency was the 2014 comedy “Six Dance Classes in Six Weeks.”

Rowlands’s mom, actor Woman Rowlands, additionally had Alzheimer’s. Throughout the making of “The Pocket book,” Gena Rowlands mentioned she channeled her mom.

“I went by that with my mom, and if Nick hadn’t directed the movie, I don’t assume I’d have gone for it — it’s simply too exhausting,” Rowlands informed O journal in 2004. “It was a troublesome however fantastic film.”