Nearly every headline about actress Shelley Duvall's July 11, 2024, death mentions what's undoubtedly her most famous role, as Wendy Torrance in "The Shining." But that performance may not have been worth what Duvall endured on set.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Nearly every headline about actress Shelley Duvall's July 11, 2024 death mentions what's
00:05undoubtedly her most famous role as Wendy Torrance in The Shining, but that performance
00:10may not have been worth what Duvall endured on set.
00:13In one of The Shining's most iconic scenes, Wendy holds off her husband Jack, played by
00:17Jack Nicholson, with a baseball bat as he confronts her on a stairway.
00:22Director Stanley Kubrick made Duvall and Nicholson shoot the scene in a record-setting 127 takes.
00:27The result of those constant takes were Duvall's hands shredded raw from gripping the bat,
00:32her voice was hoarse from crying, her eyes became swollen, and she left the set completely
00:37dehydrated.
00:38The moments of Duvall crying in pain, fear, and exhaustion were not acting, but a trauma
00:43response.
00:44Don't hurt me!
00:45I'm not going to hurt you.
00:48Don't hurt me!
00:50Kubrick's psychological brutalization of Duvall was so severe that her hair began falling
00:55out.
00:56She told The Hollywood Reporter,
00:57To wake up on a Monday morning so early and realize that you had to cry all day because
01:02it was scheduled, I would just start crying.
01:05In the equally famous scene where Nicholson bursts through the bathroom door, he destroyed
01:08nearly 60 doors to get the shot to Kubrick's liking, filming this one moment over three
01:13days.
01:14The scene was mostly improvised, and Kubrick reportedly kept information from Duvall regarding
01:18Nicholson's choice to tear down the door with an axe, meaning her horrified reactions are
01:23authentic.
01:25Actress Dee Wallace recounted on Eli Roth's History of Horror the exhaustion from shooting
01:29Cujo and being in real fight-or-flight mode all the time.
01:33Your brain does not know you are acting.
01:36It goes through every chemical change that you would go through.
01:42That at least seemed to be what was going on with Duvall on The Shining, too.
01:45No matter how much one tells themselves, I'm acting, the body is going to respond to the
01:49circumstances as if they're really happening.
01:52In the documentary Stanley Kubrick, A Life in Pictures, Nicholson admits about the director.
01:56You know, I mean, he was a completely different director with Shelley.
02:01Many of Duvall's lines were unexpectedly cut, she was frequently kept isolated, and she
02:05was forced to wait before performing her scenes to throw her off.
02:09Behind-the-scenes film from the movie even shows Kubrick requiring the rest of the crew
02:13to follow his lead.
02:14You're just wasting everybody's time there.
02:17Kubrick also made the decision to never compliment her work, instead criticizing every choice.
02:22At one point, he encouraged the rest of the crew to ignore her and disregard any needs
02:26she expressed.
02:29Shooting The Shining reportedly took 56 weeks, so Duvall spent over a year of her life being
02:33tormented.
02:34Stanley Kubrick was already considered an auteur at that point in his career, with his
02:38unconventional techniques hailed as genius rather than harmful.
02:42Many have tried to defend the director by referencing the clips from A Life in Pictures
02:45where Duvall speaks positively about his choices.
02:49It was a fascinating learning experience.
02:52It was such intense work that I think it makes you smarter.
02:57That said, in other interviews, Duvall painted things in a different light.
03:01For example, she told The Hollywood Reporter,
03:03"...I don't know how I did it.
03:05Jack Nicholson said that to me, too.
03:07He said, I don't know how you do it."
03:09Author Stephen King has not shied away from his hatred of Kubrick's film adaptation of
03:13his book, and the treatment of Duvall as Wendy is part of it.
03:16He told Rolling Stone,
03:18"...She's basically just there to scream and be stupid and that's not the woman that I
03:21wrote about."
03:23At one point in the Shining Making Of documentary, Duvall is shown lying on the floor with assorted
03:27cushions around her.
03:29It was a clear attempt to highlight the grueling process of moviemaking, but it's footage of
03:33the aftermath of an on-set panic attack.
03:36Duvall confirmed this in an interview with ComingSoon.net.
03:39She said,
03:40"...For the longest time, I couldn't remember what exactly was happening at that moment.
03:43But I do recall I had a really bad anxiety attack on set, and I believe that was what
03:47is shown in the documentary."
03:49Duvall explained that the shooting days were often 15 to 16 hours long, and breaks were
03:54hard to come by, leading to a breakdown.
03:56She said,
03:57"...Stanley Kubrick has a vision in his head of what he wants to see through his camera,
04:01and if you don't quite understand where he is coming from, he gets frustrated and angry.
04:06Communication and understanding plays a big part of film sets.
04:09I just wasn't getting it.
04:10I did in the end."
04:12Duvall had some well-documented late-life difficulties.
04:15She appeared on Dr. Phil in 2016, seemingly in the midst of a mental health episode.
04:20By that time, stories of how Duvall was treated on the set of The Shining had become common
04:23enough to lead many onlookers to believe that the problems she was facing were the result
04:27of how she was treated there.
04:29That take seems misguided, though.
04:31For one, The Shining didn't make her quit acting, as many people seem to believe.
04:35She kept acting for over 20 more years.
04:38And the Shelley Duvall Archive account on X, formerly Twitter, which is run by a fan
04:42who claims to have gotten to know the actress in the years leading up to her death, say
04:45things were more complex than one tragic event causing a spiral.
04:49They wrote,
04:50"...Shelley simply retired from Hollywood in 2002 and naturally aged.
04:54There doesn't have to be anything dramatic to happen as many people think.
04:57Life happens."
04:58That said, filming The Shining clearly tested Duvall.
05:01The results are clear on-screen in her unforgettable performance.
05:05While it drew some criticism at the time, her work has become widely recognized as one
05:09of the best performances in a horror movie ever.
05:12Stories of her behind-the-scenes treatment and rumors of how it affected her continued
05:16to circulate until the end of her life.
05:18Duvall herself has said that the movie wouldn't be what it was without Stanley Kubrick's harsh
05:22techniques, yet some have questioned whether or not it was worth it.
05:26It's impossible to deny, though, that one way or another, The Shining changed her life.