(Credit: Alamy)
When it comes to the high-octane world of action movies, there are few faces quite as recognisable as Bruce Willis. From the air duct action of Die Hard to the brink of apocalypse in Armageddon, the stoic features of Willis accompanied audiences through countless explosions and slow-mo action sequences for many years. Along the way, the New Jersey actor lent his talents to a wide variety of projects, ranging from big-budget blockbusters to obscure independent projects.
Willis was always a much more diverse performer than he was often given credit for. Despite his reputation as a hardened action movie star, Willis’ first major film role was actually in a romantic comedy, Blind Date, which is about as far away from the Nakatomi Plaza as you can get. That duality continued throughout Willis’ career, seeing him appear in everything from the erotic thriller Color of Night to guest appearances on the long-running sitcom Friends.
As you might expect for an actor with such an extensive and diverse filmography, certain Bruce Willis projects went underrated, forgotten, or largely ignored, much to the chagrin of the actor himself. Films like Lucky Number Slevin or the action-comedy Hudson Hawk are often cited among Willis’ most undeservedly underappreciated efforts. However, the actor himself has always maintained a different take on his most overlooked film.
2012 was a particularly productive year for Willis, who starred in six different films over the course of the year, including Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, the run-of-the-mill action franchise The Expendables 2, and the comedy-drama Lay the Favorite – reflecting Willis’ penchant for getting involved in a variety of projects. During that year, the actor spoke to Esquire to reflect upon his extensive career in film.
Revealing what he claimed to be his most underrated appearance on the silver screen, Willis shared, “I like a little movie I did in the early nineties called Mortal Thoughts. The part was hardly written, but I learned a lot making it.” If you have never previously heard of Mortal Thoughts, do not worry; you are probably among the majority. “No one remembers it,” the actor affirmed.
Starring Willis alongside his then-wife Demi Moore, the Alan Rudolph-directed psychological thriller is focused on the character of Cynthia Kellogg – played by Moore. In the film, Kellogg is being interviewed by police over the murder of her husband, and she goes on to reveal the narrative of the film through a series of flashbacks and memories.
Willis plays the character of Jimmy Urbanski, the abusive, drug-addicted husband of Kellogg’s friend, Joyce Urbanski. Taking loose inspiration from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Joyce and Cynthia become embroiled in various other murders and dealings throughout these flashbacks.
Produced by Columbia Pictures, the project was originally due to be directed by Claude Kerven, who was fired and subsequently replaced by Rudolph. This change in personnel caused a multitude of problems for the project, not least a lengthy legal battle over Kerven’s dismissal. These issues had an impact on the release of the film, which, while modestly successful, was quickly forgotten after its release in 1991.
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