The 51-year-old writer and director took to Twitter to apologize to the actor and his family.
Kevin Smith regrets his comments about Bruce Willis in light of the 67-year-old actor's recent news that he will be stepping away from his acting career after being diagnosed with the brain condition aphasia.
Smith, 51, took to Twitter, retweeting the news, and writing, "Long before any of the Cop Out stuff, I was a big Bruce Willis fan - so this is really heartbreaking to read. He loved to act and sing and the loss of that has to be devastating for him. I feel like an a**hole for my petty complaints from 2010. So sorry to BW and his family."
Smith directed Willis in the 2010 buddy comedy Cop Out alongside Tracy Morgan. In a 2011 Marc Maron podcast, Smith complained about the action star, calling it "f**king soul crushing" working with him.
“It was difficult,” Smith said of directing Willis at the time, claiming the actor “wouldn’t even sit for a f**king poster shoot.” He went on to say that “were it not for Tracy, I might have killed either myself or someone else in the making of f**king Cop Out.”
On Wednesday, Willis' family announced in a joint statement that the longtime action star had been privately battling aphasia, which is defined by the Mayo Clinic as "a condition that robs you of the ability to communicate. It can affect your ability to speak, write and understand language, both verbal and written."
The Willis family said that the condition has been "impacting his cognitive abilities" leading him to make the decision to step away from his career.
"We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him," they wrote.
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