Life Imitating Art For Actress Gena Rowlands [Video]

She famously played Allie in “The Notebook”, who battled Alzheimer’s. And now actress Gena Rowlands’ son reveals she’s been battling the same condition as her character for the last five years.

Nick Cassavetes says, “She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy – we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.” Rowland is now 93 and talked in the past about how her mother’s journey with Alzheimer’s played a part in her taking the role of Allie. She said in 2004, if her son hadn’t directed the movie, she probably wouldn’t have done it because it would have been too hard given what she went through with her mom. She marveled at the job her son did with the story of that movie, while at the same time thinking “that’s my little guy”.