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 girl with dementia.

“We spent numerous time speaking about Alzheimer’s and desirous 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 acquired an honorary Oscar in 2015, made 10 movies along with her husband, John Cassavetes, together with 1974’s “A Girl Below 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. In the course of the making of “The Pocket book,” Gena Rowlands mentioned she channeled her mom.

“I went by means of that with my mom, and if Nick hadn’t directed the movie, I don’t assume I might have gone for it — it’s simply too onerous,” Rowlands advised O journal in 2004. “It was a tricky however great film.”