The Notebook star Gena Rowlands has been living with Alzheimer’s disease for the past five years, her son, director and actor Nick Cassavetes, has revealed.

Rowlands, now 94, portrayed older Allie in the 2004 romantic drama, a role that touched upon the topic of Alzheimer’s. Her personal connection to the story adds a layer of authenticity to her performance.

Cassavetes, when discussing his mother’s condition, emphasized the importance of portraying Alzheimer’s realistically in The Notebook and how the experience has now become personal for their family.

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Speaking to O Magazine in a 2004 interview, Rowlands discussed how her mother’s struggle with the same disease impacted her decision to take the role.

“This last one – The Notebook was particularly hard because I play a character who has Alzheimer’s,” she said at the time. “I went through that with my mother, and if Nick hadn’t directed the film, I don’t think I would have gone for it – it’s just too hard. It was a tough but wonderful movie.”

The Notebook, which was released in 2004, starred McAdams and Ryan Gosling as Allie and Noah, two young adults from very different socioeconomic backgrounds who fall in love in 1940s South Carolina. After Noah is drafted to serve in World War II, Allie begins a romance with another man. However, when Noah returns home, it becomes clear that his romance with Allie remains.

Rowlands, who is retired from acting, had an illustrious career in film, TV, and theater. She earned two Oscar nominations for her breakout role in the 1974 drama Woman Under the Influence and 1980’s Gloria.

She was married to filmmaker and actor John Cassavetes from 1954 up until his death in 1989. Besides Nick, they share two other children: director and Broken English actor Zoe Cassavetes and director and actor Alexandra “Xan” Cassavetes. Rowlands married retired businessman Robert Forrest in 2012.

Recalling a funny memory from working with his mother on The Notebook, Nick told EW about how, after seeing the final cut, studio executives requested Rowlands cry more at the end of the film when her character finally remembers who she is.

“She said, ‘Let me get this straight. We’re reshooting because of my performance?’” Nick recounted.

“We go to reshoots, and now it’s one of those things where mama’s pissed and I had asked her, ‘Can you do it, mom?’ She goes, ‘I can do anything,’” he remembered, adding: “I promise you, on my father’s life, this is true: Teardrops came flying out of her eyes when she saw [James Garner], and she burst into tears. And I was like, okay, well, we got that… It’s the one time I was in trouble on set.”