The Bruce Willis movie doomed before it was ever released
Bruce Willis was so unpopular at one stage of his career that even the mention of his name was enough to have audiences booing in the aisles.
(Credit: Alamy)
Film » Cutting Room Floor
Wed 5 February 2025 1:30, UK
Ask any cinephile to name the Bruce Willis movie they think would have encouraged people to boo him before it was even released, and a few candidates will likely spring to mind.
Perhaps it was one of his early flops, such as Bonfire of the Vanities, Hudson Hawk, Billy Bathgate, or Striking Distance? Maybe it was one of his late-period duds like Perfect Stranger, Surrogates, or Cop Out? The reality is that it was none of these dreadful films. Instead, one of Willis’ greatest hits had so much bad publicity before its release that audiences would boo the trailer – something that sounds insane when you consider how beloved it became.
In the late 1980s, Willis was one of the biggest stars on television thanks to Moonlighting, the hit comedy-drama he headlined alongside Cybill Shepherd. When it was announced that he would be the star of a major John McTiernan action movie called Die Hard, the reaction wasn’t what it would come to be in later years. Instead, people mostly baulked at the idea of the smug comedy guy from TV making an action flick – and it didn’t help that reports of a heated feud on the set of Moonlighting were all over the newspapers.
Throughout Moonlighting’s five-season run, it was public knowledge that its bickering stars did a lot more than bicker in real life. Following an initial burst of sexual tension that resulted in a passionate kiss that failed to develop into anything more substantial, the two stars settled into a mutual hatred that defined the production. “Yes, we had fights all the time,” Shepherd admitted. “That was part of the preparation. So, it was real.” After a while, the two actors realised they were using their real-life animosity to boost their onscreen characters, which was deeply unhealthy.
Interestingly, when the rumours of their distaste for each other began making headlines, Willis seemed to come off worse in the eyes of the public. As Die Hard screenwriter Steven E de Souza said in Nick de Semlyen’s The Last Action Heroes, “His fans had turned on him because of the feud he was having with his co-star on Moonlighting.” Bizarrely, Willis also copped some bad press when a worker hired to clean barnacles off his boat drowned. It led to a situation in which “All over the country when the trailer played, as it said ‘Bruce Willis’, the audience would either laugh or boo.”
Amazingly, Fox was so keenly aware of the negativity swirling around its leading man that the newspaper adverts for Die Hard didn’t even feature his name. According to producer Lawrence Gordon, the studio’s marketing department also reworked a poster that featured a large shot of Willis’ head alongside a small Nakatomi Plaza skyscraper after “it tested the lowest of any poster they’d ever tested.” The new poster reversed the image, with the building receiving the most focus and Willis’ tiny floating head relegated to the corner.
Within Fox’s moviemaking confines, De Souza claimed everyone was quietly confident about Die Hard despite Willis’ name being dragged through the mud. When a small group of 15 executives watched an early cut in an unfinished state, it still made them creep forward to the edge of their seats. “Everybody was stoked,” he said. “Even with ‘Shot Missing’ cards, even with a temporary score, even with Alan Rickman falling onto a blue airbag – you could see the bag below him – we knew it was lightning in a bottle.”
The rest, as they say, is history – and all that booing of Willis was quickly replaced by cheering for John McClane.
Related Topics
Bruce WillisDie Hard
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