Shelley Duvall gives VERY rare interview, recalls trauma of making The Shining with Stanley Kubrick

Reclusive movie star Shelley Duvall has given a very rare interview where she talks about her iconic role in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, revealing that she would spend days on set of the film crying. 

Duvall, 71, who was last seen during an appearance on Dr. Phil in 2016, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter in Texas Hill Country near to where she resides, and discussed her grueling filming days with Kubrick, who was notorious for being a hard taskmaster, as well as looking back on her Hollywood career. 

As she played the wife of Jack Nicholson’s character Jack Torrance – who goes insane while inside a snowed-in resort hotel – in 1980’s The Shining, Duvall explained that she constantly had to get her mind in a state of panic to get into character for the filmmaker.

Duvall explained: ‘[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.’

She said that she would put on a Sony Walkman and listen to sad songs or just think of unhappy memories to get into the proper head space to play Wendy Torrance.

Duvall said: ‘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.”‘

She was asked by THR if she felt like Kubrick had been unusually cruel or abusive toward her in order for her to achieve the desired performance for the film.

Duvall answered: ‘He’s got that streak in him. He definitely has that. But I think mostly because people have been that way to him at some time in the past. His first two films were Killer’s Kiss and The Killing.’

Writer of the piece, Seth Abramovitch, asked the star to elaborate more on the subject specifically when it came to the director’s treatment of her.

She seemingly does not hold any ill will toward Kubrick as she said: ‘No. He was very warm and friendly to me. He spent a lot of time with Jack and me. He just wanted to sit down and talk for hours while the crew waited. And the crew would say, ‘Stanley, we have about 60 people waiting.’ But it was very important work.’

However, fellow actress Anjelica Huston – whjo was dating Nicholson at the time – recalls Duvall and Kubrick’s interactions much differently.

The 69-year-old actress said: ‘I got the feeling, certainly through what Jack was saying at the time, that Shelley was having a hard time just dealing with the emotional content of the piece.

‘And they didn’t seem to be all that sympathetic. It seemed to be a little bit like the boys were ganging up. That might have been completely my misread on the situation, but I just felt it. And when I saw her during those days, she seemed a generally a bit tortured, shook up. I don’t think anyone was being particularly careful of her.’

Duvall went on to star in several projects after The Shining including 1980’s Popeye opposite Robin Williams.

However she has not worked as an actress since 2002 and opted to move from Studio City, California to Texas 27 years ago.

After staying out of the limelight for a decade and a half, Duvall revealed her struggle with mental illness in November 2016.