Celebrated actor and honorary Academy Award recipient Gena Rowlands is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, says her son, the filmmaker Nick Cassavetes. Cassavetes, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly published Tuesday, says Rowlands has had Alzheimer’s for five years. In the 2004 film “The Notebook,” Cassavetes directed his mother, playing the older version of the character played by Rachel McAdams, as a woman with dementia. A representative for Rowlands confirmed that Cassavetes “speaks for the family.” Rowlands’ mother, the actor Lady Rowlands, also had Alzheimer’s. During the making of “The Notebook,” Gena Rowlands said she channeled her mother.
