Despite being the oldest child of iconic actors Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, Rumer Willis
has forged a path in the industry that's all her own. While she may have had some key connections,
her journey hasn't been without challenges. Here's where Rumer's been, and where she's
headed next.
Acting is a notoriously tricky industry to break into, and the competition in Hollywood
is fierce. And while it would be easy to assume that the child of celebrity actors would have
it easy within that realm, it turns out, Rumer's childhood was a little more average than you
may think.
It turns out Rumer grew up in Idaho. As she explained in an interview with The Chew, her
upbringing helped her appreciate the outdoors. She recalled,
"The school that I went to, every few weeks we would end up going on some sort of camping
trip, whether it was, like, snowshoeing, or we'd go to like a yurt somewhere."
Of course, she still had access to the finer things in life. Her family lived on a sprawling
ranch in Hailey, Idaho, a once-crumbling town that was pretty much transformed by the presence
of these two Hollywood stars. Nevertheless, "Haileywood" — as the locals called it — was
a far cry from the real deal.
Rumer's career began when she was just 6 years old, when she was cast in 1995's Now and Then,
alongside her mom. Rumer looks back on her first job with fondness, telling HuffPost,
"It's so cool to watch and it's so funny to just see yourself so tiny. But I remember
being on that set was just like heaven for me."
"Wow, Bud, that's a pretty scarf."
"Oh, well, thank you Angela."
That role led to a lifelong love of acting for the star. She explained to Sarah's Backstage
Pass,
"I've always been interested in acting. […] It's always been something that I've loved and
wanted to do."
Willis also shared how her love of film grew as she visited her parents on set. She said,
"It's not like a normal circumstance. When you're going to visit your dad at his job
and he's covered in blood and it's like, 'Aw cool give me some too.'"
Things became a little more complicated for the family when Bruce Willis and Demi Moore
separated when Rumer was just 10 years old. While it was a difficult time for Rumer and
her sisters, they were shielded from the media blitz surrounding the divorce. She explained
to Larry King,
"I think at that time I didn't have as much of an understanding of the public side of
it. […] I'm so thankful and grateful that my parents made such an effort at that time."
Apparently, Willis and Moore did their best to make things easy for their children by
maintaining a strong family dynamic. Rumer added,
"I never had to split up vacations or split up birthdays."
Even though Rumer was relatively sheltered from the limelight throughout her childhood,
things changed for the young actress when she moved to Los Angeles at age 15. She told
HuffPost,
"I [moved] right at the peak of my awkward phase of trying to figure out who I was. I
still had a bunch of baby fat, I had this massive 'fro that I did not know what to do
with."
She recalled how, at the time, social media and celebrity-focused blogging was just taking
off. She added,
"A lot of it was kind of that really mean, hyper-vigilant Perez Hilton types where it
was just so attacking."
"So much of it was so anonymous. I can't track down, like, @BananaGirl557 and like go and
say, 'Hey, that really hurt me.'"
Rumer was brutally ridiculed for her looks. And as she explained, she didn't yet understand
her self-worth, which led to an unhealthy relationship with her body. She remembered
thinking,
"Ok, so if I get skinny or if I dress the right way […] then I'll be valued."
After being mercilessly bullied by online media outlets, Rumer struggled to find her
identity. She explained on an episode of Red Table Talk,
"When I was like 14, because I was so shamed when all those blogs came out about how I
looked, how my face looked, then my idea was that, 'Oh, well then, if I'm desired sexually
then I have value.'"
The drive for this type of attention eventually led to the actress to lose her virginity at
18 to an older man, who she says was just using her. But Rumer has since learned what
a healthy intimate relationship should look like. She said,
"I hope in having open conversations about it that other people will have more confidence
to do that as well."
"I found a different confidence because I realized that you can't base your self-worth
on the opinions of others."
After Demi Moore and Bruce Willis divorced, Moore married actor Ashton Kutcher in 2005
and they were together for 8 years. But for Rumer, the relationship was torturous. She
even cut ties with her mother for a brief time because of it.
On Red Table Talk, Rumer and her sister Tallulah explained why that chapter was hard for them.
Moore, who had been sober for over 20 years, started drinking again while she was with
Kutcher. Rumer said,
"So much of that time, especially with Ashton, I was so angry because I felt like something
that was mine had been taken away."
"I had so much of this un-dealt-with anger that I hadn't let out because I didn't understand
what was going on."
Things got worse when Moore and Kutcher began trying for a baby. Rumer shared,
"There was so much focus on that, it was like, 'Oh, we're not enough.'"
She went on to explain that when Moore had a miscarriage, Rumer moved out of the house,
because she couldn't understand her mom's apparent desperation for another child. Post-split
from Ashton, the two have since mended their relationship and are as close as ever.
After years of playing small roles in a range of films and TV shows, Rumer got her big break
at 21, in the 2009 horror film Sorority Row. Willis played Ellie in the movie, and explained
her work with Sarah's Backstage Pass, revealing,
"[My character is] definitely one of the 'bookish' ones of the sorority. She's going through
this mental breakdown, […] she can't handle any of the chaos with the emotional situation,
it's really hard for her."
For Willis, the film came at a critical time in her life. For one, it offered the actor
her first real set of friends. She said,
"I never really had a solid group of girlfriends. These girls are definitely the first group
of girls that I've ever really stayed in touch with and we basically talk every other day."
"Theta Pi we honor thee, from life to death, sorority!"
While Rumer's acting career was taking off throughout the 2010s, it wasn't until her
appearance on Dancing with the Stars in 2015 that she really made a name for herself. As
she explained to W, she had taken a few ballet classes as a kid, but never had any formal
training.
Rumer revealed that production had initially approached her a few years earlier. At the
time, she was performing in a cabaret in L.A. Rumer said of the show,
"We were by no means dancing properly and we didn't even have a proper ballroom dancer
teaching us."
When Dancing with the Stars approached her again, she saw it as an opportunity to truly
learn how to dance. Once Rumer took home the Mirrorball trophy, she became something of
a household name, appearing on countless talk shows, and even heading off on a dance tour.
"I feel like I'm still speechless. I'm so excited."
Rumer told Time,
"I think the whole experience was really special. It's an incredible journey."
After her winning spin on the dance floor, Rumer set out to prove herself as a true triple
threat. And in 2015, she made her Broadway debut as Roxie in the musical Chicago. As
she explained to W, her training on Dancing with the Stars ended up being incredibly useful.
She said,
"I was able to work with Ann Reinking who choreographed it and she really liked the
idea of using a lot of the things that I had learned in 'Dancing with the Stars.'"
Dancing for a TV audience also prepared the actor for the nerves that come with performing
in front of a live theater audience. She revealed,
"It was more daunting standing on stage for 'Dancing with the Stars' every week than on
Broadway."
Apparently, enduring months of learning new numbers each week and performing in front
of millions made stepping on stage for Chicago feel like a breeze!
Rumer made a serious life change in 2017 when she got sober. In an Instagram post from July
of that year, she wrote,
"I will be the first one to say I'm not perfect and I mess up sometimes, and every once in
a while I get it right, but I wanted to share this because I am really proud of myself.
Yesterday I celebrated six months of sobriety."
It turns out, Rumer's decision didn't stem from any specific addiction, but rather an
experiment that became a bit of a lifestyle. She told People,
"My decision to become sober wasn't out of a need necessarily, it was more just that
I did Sober January and I just decided to keep going."
"I didn't say I was sober from anything. I could have been sober from like a food addiction
or from like buying too many clothes."
In December 2020, the star revealed that she was four years sober — from alcohol — and
still going!
Rumer has continued to entertain live audiences — and one performance was particularly memorable
for the actor. In 2018, she played multiple characters in a staged sing-along show inspired
by the movie Love Actually. As she told Access that she had worked with this cabaret company
for five years at the time.
And it appears that seeing his daughter on the stage was huge for Bruce Willis. Rumer
shared,
"I think a lot of where my music tastes come from is from [my dad]. So, whenever I know
he's going to come to a show I always try and sing something […] he either showed
me or something that he likes."
One of Rumer's most exciting roles was her turn in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time...
In Hollywood. Apparently, Willis auditioned for two other roles in the film but was ultimately
cast as Sharon Tate's friend Joanna. As she told Access, she got the call about landing
the part just a few days before turning 30. She joked,
"I was like, 'I will do anything, I will PA on this set, like whatever, I just want to
be part of this movie.'"
Rumer also confessed that she had massive crushes on both Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio,
growing up. So it wasn't too shabby to land a major Hollywood movie with both of them!
In 2019, Rumer dusted off her vocal chops on the reality competition show The Masked
Singer, where well-known personalities dress in costume and perform for judges. Rumer was
transformed into "The Lion" for the show. She was eliminated just one episode before
the finale, but she still wowed fans with her voice. As judge Nicole Scherzinger said
after one performance,
"I am shocked because she can sing. […] I felt like I know this voice."
When she was asked why she did the show, the newly-minted singer said,
"I knew how to dance — everybody kind of figured out that I could do that, but I wanted
everyone to know I could sing, too."
In an interview with E! News, Rumer explained that it wasn't exactly an easy series of performances.
Rumer's mask weighed roughly 12 pounds, and she couldn't see past her nose. She recalled,
"There were times when I did some choreography where I was right by the edge of the stage
and I was just praying that I didn't fall."
"I love my voice because I feel like I have the power to use it for people who don't have
their own."
Despite being raised by two of Hollywood's elite, it's pretty clear that Rumer hasn't
always enjoyed a perfectly charmed life. But thanks to everything she's learned over the
years, she's now focused on becoming a positive role model for other young women. Back in
2009, Rumer told Sarah's Backstage Pass,
"One of the most important things that I would love to do...is to set a really positive role
model for young women about their body image and about eating."
More recently, in 2019, the star revealed to HuffPost that her goals hadn't changed.
She said,
"I think the most important thing for me is doing my best to lead by example."
And that's exactly what Rumer is doing. Her Instagram is filled with inspiring posts sharing
her own struggles with mental health and body image, and encouraging others to be more positive
as well. One post reads,
"This is just an appreciation post for my body because I think it's important to celebrate
ourselves."
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