Does anyone else get the idea that Bruce Willis should have been a cop instead of an actor? He definitely plays the role of the cop or private investigator a lot in his movies, to the point that one can’t help but wonder if he typecast himself in this manner or was given such roles due to his past. It does appear that he was a security guard at one point in his life, and was even a private investigator at one point. It’s tough to believe that everything Wikipedia says is true, but it’s fairly easy to figure out the real bits to agree with or expose those that are trying to bolster their life story. But given his proclivity for playing police officers and PI’s it’s not tough to think that this life might have been his calling if not for his turn to acting. But would he have been a good cop? That’s kind of a tough question to answer really since each person wants to think that they’re a good cop these days, but the opinions of the people tend to vary for a lot of reasons.
If he’d become a cop like many of the characters that he’s portrayed over the years it feels fair to say that he might have been a horrible cop in some regards since John McClane and many others kind of followed their own advice and did their own thing when it came to getting the bad guys. Unfortunately, even if it was effective, it ended up causing a lot more damage than was warranted at times. A lot of people would argue that McClane is the type that gets the job done unapologetically since his circumstances were usually beyond his control. But thinking about a guy like McClane running around trying to take on terrorists and anyone who challenges his authority would be kind of disturbing.
To be fair, as a cop in the movies, Willis usually plays the type of guy that doesn’t like to follow authority and is at best a maverick that’s trying to do the right thing but will do it his own way and show an utter disregard for procedure and a serious lack of respect for anyone until he gets to know them better. This usually means that he and the individual in question have faced life and death together, which is kind of a toxic way to get to know someone, but it appears to work in the movies. Many critics and fans, even those who love characters like McClane, have agreed that if a cop like this was present in the real world that they would have been arrested a few times over, or would be dead given his tendency to go above and beyond what it takes to solve a crime. Granted, John is the type of character that takes things way too far and doesn’t really have any other setting when he gets going. But at the same time, thinking of Bruce as an officer of the law makes one feel that he would have been the type of person that would have faded into obscurity instead since if not for acting it sounds like he wasn’t bound to do much else with his life.
Maye that would have happened, maybe not, it’s tough to say, but at the very least it feels as though Willis wouldn’t have been someone that a lot of people all over the world would have been hailing as one of the best action stars of his time. At one point, Willis was without any doubt among the greatest names to be heard when it came to action movies since he did turn in a few of the best action movies back in the day. Thinking of him as a cop though makes one wonder if he would have been able to cut it on the job after so many years, especially since McClane is the type of cop that wouldn’t have even been allowed to get away with half of the stuff he did back in the day. But in all fairness, he might have been a great cop, just without the craziness and the inability to stay out of trouble.
Trying to imagine Bruce Willis as anything else at this time is kind of tough since he’s been such a big star for so long. But thinking that his decision to play a cop or a detective or just someone in a position of authority for so long makes it easy to wonder if he could have become a cop at one point in his life. It would have been an interesting development to be certain, but it probably wouldn’t have been the right move. At the very least, it would have made his foray into law enforcement, on-screen at least, make a lot of sense.
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