Actor Gena Rowlands, an Emmy and Golden Globe winner best known to modern audiences for her heart-wrenching performance in The Notebook , has Alzheimers disease.

Director and actor Nick Cassavetes, who is Rowlands son, confirmed his 94-year-old mothers diagnosis in an interview with Entertainment Weekly published Tuesday. Rowlands portrayed the older version of Rachel McAdams character, Allie Hamilton, in The Notebook, which Cassavetes directed.

I got my mom to play older Allie, and we spent a lot of time talking about Alzheimers and wanting to be authentic with it, and now, for the last five years, shes had Alzheimers, Cassavetes told the publication. Shes in full dementia. And its so crazy we lived it, she acted it, and now its on us.