By India McCarty
From Chris Hemsworth to Seth Rogen to Emma Heming Willis, Hollywood’s biggest names are speaking up about caring for aging and sick loved ones.
“For many years, people just didn’t talk about it,” said Jane Root, CEO and founder of Nutopia, the production company behind Hemsworth’s new documentary, A ROAD TO REMEMBER. “And suddenly, influential people like Chris and Seth [Rogen] and people are suddenly, like, this is something that needs to be talked about. We need to stop being scared of it, we need to take away the stigma of it.”
Hemsworth’s documentary follows him and his father, Craig, as they roadtrip across Australia. Craig was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and the trip was an effort to reconnect and strengthen his memories.
“My Dad and I had always spoken about taking a trip back to the Northern Territory, where our family had lived years ago, but we had never been able to set aside the time to actually do it,” the THOR actor said in a statement about A ROAD TO REMEMBER. “More recently the idea of taking that road trip reemerged with more pressing importance. The result was a more profound, more moving, and more surprising journey than I ever anticipated.”
Related: Chris Hemsworth Discovers A Predisposition For Alzheimer’s On New Show
Hemsworth isn’t the only star shining a light on caring for loved ones. Bradley Cooper released PBS doc CAREGIVING earlier this year, while comedian Rogen produced TAKING CARE, a documentary about caregiving for his mother-in-law as she navigated Alzheimer’s.
“I’ve seen firsthand how people sharing their stories is very therapeutic and allows other people to open up themselves,” Rogen told PEOPLE. “And I think [wife] Lauren’s family sharing their story will just make a lot of people not feel so alone if they are dealing with the disease. It’ll offer comfort and if you know nothing about the disease, it will hopefully show you what it’s like.”
Heming Willis has also been transparent about the realities of taking care of a loved one. Her husband, actor Bruce Willis, was diagnosed with dementia in 2022, and she has become an advocate for both people struggling with the disease, as well as their caregivers.
“Society paints such a horrific view of dementia that newly diagnosed families often receive a ‘diagnosis and an adios’ from the doctor’s office,” Heming Willis told Vogue Australia. “If we only speak in hushed tones, if we keep painting it in darkness, that stigma helps no one.”
She continued, “It’s important for us to be talking about dementia. We need to learn how to support people with dementia, and their families, we need to learn how to lift them up. And not try to put them into a corner. Because that’s what FTD [frontotemporal dementia] wants to do. It just wants to stick you in a corner and it just sucks all the air out of the room. And we need to be able to add more support.”
These recent projects from some of Hollywood’s biggest stars are working to dispel the stigma surrounding diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia and remind caregivers that they are not alone.
Read Next: Emma Heming Willis ‘Could Breathe’ After Sharing Bruce Willis’ Dementia Diagnosis
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