Multi-award-winning actress Gena Rowlands – star of the classic “Notebook” – is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, her son, director and actor Nick Cassavetes, has revealed.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the premiere of “The Notebook”, he noted that his mother has been suffering from the disease for five years.

In the romantic drama film, Rowlands played the elderly version of protagonist Allie, who also had dementia.

“I had my mother play the elderly Allie and we spent a lot of time talking about the disease, wanting to be authentic with her. Now, for the past five years, he has been suffering from Alzheimer’s. He is completely demented. And it’s so crazy – we lived it, acted it and now we live it,” said the director, whose grandmother, Lady Rowlands, also suffered from the same disease.

In an interview in 2004, his mother spoke about this event in “O Magazine”.

“I went through that with my mother, and if it wasn’t for Nick directing the film, I don’t think I would have made it – it was just too hard for me,” the award-winning actress said. “It was a difficult but wonderful film.”

Gina Rowlands has been one of the most charming and charismatic American actresses in film, theater and television. In 2015, she received an honorary Oscar while appearing in 10 films of her husband, John Cassavetes, including “A Woman Under the Influence” in 1974 and “Gloria” in 1980 for which she was nominated for an Oscar.

In addition, she has won four Emmy Awards while her last film appearance was in the 2014 comedy “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks,” as reported by the AP.