It wasn’t a stretch for Bruce Willis to play an over-protective father in his new movie, Live Free or Die Hard, which comes out June 27.
“I can relate to it, but that’s overly dramatized in the film,” Willis, 52, told reporters Friday at a press event for the movie in Van Nuys, Calif.
“My relationship with my daughters is a lot more upfront than that, and what we’ve done, as parents, is to try and send the girls out in the world with as much information about what those 16- and 18-year-old boys are thinking, and hopefully that’ll keep them safe.”
Bruce Willis is dad to Rumer Wills, 18; Scout Willis, 15; and Tallulah Willis, 13, with ex-wife Demi Moore.
And while he might not blow up terrorists like his Die Hard character, John McClane, he admits he can be a bit of a tough guy when it comes to his daughters’ suitors.
“I’m not hard at all,” Bruce Willis said with a smile. “I just tell [the boys] I want to meet them. That’s the only thing I ask for. I just give them that look, that little look.”
No word on whether he gives Rumer Willis‘ BFF, Hayden Panettiere, that look.
Another intimidation technique of Bruce’s: putting somebody “in charge.”
“If they bring a group of guys over to the house to have a pool party or whatever, I just say, ‘Dude, what’s your name?’ and he says, ‘Uh, Cinjun.’ Then I say, ‘Okay, Cinjun, you’re in charge. If anything happens to one of my daughters, I’m coming to you first, and then I’m going to kill all your friends right in front of you,” Willis said. “And you’ll be last.’ Cinjun, if you’re listening to this …”
Apparently, the Willis daughters – who also have a protective step-dad figure in Ashton Kutcher of all people, managed to emerge well-adjusted.
Said Justin Long, who plays John McClane‘s geeky, computer-hacking sidekick in the upcoming Die Hard film:
“I had the good fortune of meeting the daughters, and they’re all very smart, very elevated. They made fun of us mercilessly, but in a very witty, mature way. So someone did a good job.”