It’s clear that ‘Die Hard’ made Bruce Willis a global star. However, at the time, he wasn’t an unknown actor. Since 1985, Willis had been appearing in the popular television series Moonlighting and was primarily seen as a “TV actor,” which made his role in ‘Die Hard’ a major turning point in his career.
John McTiernan’s action film became a huge boost for Willis. The actor acknowledged that movies like this are difficult to make without injuries, though set designers usually manage to make the environment relatively safe. Still, accidents can happen, and Willis experienced firsthand how serious their consequences can be.
The On-Set Accident
No matter how secure a film set is, there is always room for error. Bruce Willis learned this personally when he lost two-thirds of the hearing in his left ear. According to Rumer Willis, the hearing loss occurred after he accidentally fired a gun near his ear. As reported by Hollywood Suite, director John McTiernan wanted to use louder sound effects to make the film feel more realistic. That particular scene led to the “deafening” accident. Combining a powerful explosion with a confined space turned hearing damage into an unexpected reality.
Rumer Willis has explained that her father’s partial deafness is one of the reasons he struggles during interviews — he simply can’t hear what’s happening around him. This difficulty affected both his professional and personal life, especially during family meals. When his daughters talk rapidly about fashion or similar topics at the dinner table, Willis often finds it hard to keep up.
Bruce Willis has never spoken publicly about the accident, so it remains unclear whether it could have been prevented or whether adequate safety equipment was present on set. Reports suggest, however, that such incidents are common in the film industry. As noted by Christian Gainey on SlashFilm, the lack of proper safety precautions leading to irreversible hearing damage among actors remains an ongoing issue. For example, Star Trek star William Shatner suffered from constant tinnitus after an on-set explosion.
Concerns About Willis’s Health
Even before the public announcement of Bruce Willis’s aphasia diagnosis and his retirement from acting, colleagues had noticed something was wrong. Many who worked with him reported that he often seemed disoriented and had trouble remembering his lines, which led to the use of an earpiece on set. It was also reported that during the filming of Hard Kill, Willis fired a gun at the wrong moment. Fortunately, no one was injured.
