Hollywood's Mistreatment of Shelly Duvall
Photo from Cryptic Rock
Violet Rhoades
The Shining is one of the most beloved films that Hollywood has ever produced. It's in essentially every top 10 greatest horror films of all time lists and has produced a $44,017,374 total lifetime gross. The first time I watched the film, I was immediately enticed by it. With horrifyingly stunning cinematography and near perfect acting, it’s proven to be a favorite film in many households.
Shelly Duvall, who plays Wendy Torrance, the main female lead in the film, seemed like a bit of a wallflower after the film was released. It’s not uncommon for actors to drop off the face of the earth after a film, but it was especially odd given the fact that Duvall was on the rise to be one of the most iconic actresses in history. In recent days, we’re just finding out that this dream was quickly torn away after how she was treated by producer and director Stanley Kubrick.
One of the most well known scenes from the entire film is when Wendy Torrance goes to confront her husband Jack Torrance at the bottom of the stairs with a baseball bat in hand. Duvall’s acting seems perfect. She looks as if she’s genuinely terrified and exhausted with her eyes swollen and beat red, her voice small and weak as she delivers her lines. This is because she wasn’t acting, and her swollen eyes were due to the pure exhaustion she was feeling. She was forced to retake this scene 127 times, which resulted in her hands being raw, calloused, and left in excruciating pain to get what Kubrick determined as the ‘perfect’ scene.
This wasn’t the only scene that Duvall said she had retaken an alarming amount of times. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Duvall started to share some of the terror she experienced on set, stating, “[Kubrick] doesn’t print anything until at least the 35th take. Thirty-five takes, running and crying and carrying a little boy, it gets hard. And full performance from the first rehearsal. That’s difficult.”
Prior to filming anything on set, Duvall reported she would “listen to sad songs. Or you just think about something very sad in your life or how much you miss your family or friends. But after a while, your body rebels. It says: ‘Stop doing this to me. I don’t want to cry every day.’ And sometimes just that thought alone would make me cry. To wake up on a Monday morning, so early, and realize that you had to cry all day because it was scheduled — I would just start crying. I’d be like, ‘Oh no, I can’t, I can’t.’ And yet I did it. I don’t know how I did it. Jack said that to me, too. He said, ‘I don’t know how you do it.’”
Duvall wasn’t the first person to use method acting to try and perfect her part, and she most certainly won’t be the last. The problem here isn’t necessarily with method acting, it's with abusing it and sacrificing yourself in the process. After doing everything you can to feel the way your character does for months and months on end with no break, lines start to blur. Duvall felt the fear Wendy felt throughout the film 24/7 and it consumed her, and took over her entire life. That's what would be the cause of her downfall in Hollywood.
Being in a deranged state of hysteria for 16 hours a day, 6 days a week is completely exhausting. In the same article, Anjelica Huston, who was Jack Nicholson's girlfriend at the time, reports that not only Kubrick, but also Duvall’s beloved co-star, Jack Nicholson, were both aware of how tortured and exhausted she felt, and yet Huston claims they showed Duvall no sympathy at all. She even claims that they were both unnecessarily rough on Duvall at times.
All of these hardcomings add up, and eventually Duvall decided enough was enough. Leaving behind all the fame and the fortune, she left behind her luxurious 3-acre property, and traded it for a quiet home out in Texas Hill Country, away from all the noise and people. She now spends her days tasting all of the local restaurants and bakeries, spending time in her white Toyota 4Runner, and making conversation with every local who goes by in her direction.
Two decades after her retirement from Hollywood, Duvall has shockingly decided to make her comeback. At 73 years old, her returning role is the mother of the main character Rico, from the film The Forest Hills, which is set to release later this year. As of right now, it is unknown if Duvall plans to only return for this one film, or if she wants to take part in more. For now, all we can do is hope that Duvall's Hollywood experience is better the second time around.
Sources:
The Forest Hills First Trailer Reveals Shelley Duvall's Screen Comeback
Searching for Shelley Duvall, the Reclusive ‘The Shining’ Icon – The Hollywood Reporter
