Most people are familiar with one version of the Bruce Willis story, which includes the action scenes, the smirk, and the witty police officer. However, if you go back far enough to a Carneys Point, New Jersey, high school hallway, the scene is very different. A child who struggles academically, stutters, and lacks a clear plan. The extent to which that environment influenced everything that followed is easy to overlook.
In Carneys Point Township, a small, blue-collar town in Salem County with about 8,000 residents, Willis went to Penns Grove High School. His classmates referred to him as “Buck-Buck,” which provides insight into his social standing. Fitting in required a workaround for an adolescent who had trouble speaking without stuttering, and Willis discovered one in humor. Something clicked between his roles as the drama kid and the class clown.
Anthony Rastelli, his drama teacher at high school, reportedly witnessed it in real time and found it hard to watch. Willis would appear to stutter while standing in front of an audience, but he would persevere. The other pupils would chuckle. And he would still finish. That picture has an almost painful quality, but it also makes perfect sense when you consider where he ended up. That specific type of obstinacy usually has an outcome.
It turned out that the stutter completely vanished when acting. According to Willis, the experience was “phenomenal” because he was able to assume a character and get rid of the barrier that had followed him everywhere else. Before graduating in 1973, he became president of the student council because drama club had given him something tangible. Not the course you would anticipate from a child who allegedly left with low grades.
After graduation, there was a period of time that only seems formative in retrospect. Willis was employed at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant as a security guard. At a DuPont factory, he moved crew members. Given his subsequent roles, the fact that he briefly worked as a private investigator seems almost too obvious. It’s difficult to pinpoint his exact thoughts during those years, but it’s possible that he wasn’t entirely certain.
Eventually, he enrolled in the drama program at the esteemed theater department of Montclair State University in New Jersey. Jerry Rockwood, a professor there, saw something in him and encouraged him to pursue speech therapy. The real turning point, both personally and professionally, appears to have been the combination of that therapeutic work and acting training. Without finishing his degree, Willis left Montclair in 1977, relocated to New York City, and worked as a bartender in Manhattan during the early 1980s while looking for work. Supporting oneself behind a bar while attempting to get cast is a particular grind that either breaks people or makes them unbreakable.
The formal education component is noteworthy. No conservatory background, no degree, no film school. Instead, Willis had an exceptional level of perseverance, a few college semesters that guided him in the right direction, and a high school drama club that provided him with a coping mechanism for anxiety. It turned out that his stuttering was what initially propelled him onto a stage, despite the fact that it appeared to be a permanent barrier.
A neat and inspirational version of that story exists. To be honest, though, it’s not that simple. Willis did not become famous by overcoming his stutter. After figuring out a workaround, he dropped out of school early, worked odd jobs for years, and finally found his calling. The education, if any, took place in fragments, with the majority of it taking place outside of classrooms.
He did not receive a career from Montclair State or Penns Grove High School. It was a path. That’s sufficient sometimes.
