Bruce Willis, the tough guy of Die Hard movie franchise used to stammer severely during his childhood.
My schoolmates would call me “Buck-Buck”. I could hardly talk. It took me three minutes to complete a sentence. It was so devastating.
Stammering started to bother him when he was around 9 years old and it was there till 17.
He still stutters, but, now, he has learnt the art of managing it.
Like any other stutterer, he would skip classes during high school to avoid bullying and humiliation. Gradually, he started to participate in dramas and plays where he would play small comic roles such as clowns. Without talking much, he would show his presence on the stage. After a few acts, he gathered the courage to accept some mainstream roles with dialogues. To his amaze, he didn’t stammer when speaking on the stage.
He realized that playing a character on the stage makes him completely forget about his speech disorder. It encouraged him to take acting seriously.
Now, I understand that why every TISA communication workshop has drama and role play activities 🙂
After high school, he took odd jobs for some time to save money so that he can enroll in the drama college. His professors at the drama college suggested him to take help from speech therapy for more improvement in his speech. It worked!!
In all, acting and speech therapy helped him to overcome stammering and make a name for himself.
He is one of the celebrity stutterer who openly accepts his speech imperfection and participates in various awareness programs. Recently, he attended the 10th annual benefit gala of The American Institute of Stuttering along with Mr Joe Biden (the vice president of the USA, he also stutters).
To read the full article, please check this link- How Bruce Willis has overcome stuttering
2 thoughts on “Roleplay and dramas has helped Bruce Willis to overcome stammering”
sachin
(August 28, 2016 - 6:21 am)Thanks Ashish! Very true.
One can make anything out of one's "stammering" or any other difference.
Here is what a teen has to say about her Autism:
https://youtu.be/T3PwG36iKH8?t=1m29s
admin
(August 29, 2016 - 4:39 am)Yes, true. And, there is no need to compete with others. I'm dealing with an auto-immune disorder, psoriasis, and it is something like a roller coaster ride between remission and relapse. It looks so odd to others, including the family. But, this is how I am. So, sometimes, we just don't need to give explanation to others anymore. What we need is to just keep going on.
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