From 2001: A Space Odyssey to A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick’s career has become legendary. The director was known for his meticulous detail on set, extensive planning in pre-production and a zero-tolerance policy on script deviation from his actors. Shelley Duvall bore the brunt of it. During the filming of 1980s The Shining, the actors were driven to the extreme as the filmmaker pushed for perfection. The actress and co-star Jack Nicholson have slated the filming process and slammed the director’s treatment of the stars.
The Shining’s production was as torturous and complex as the Torrance family’s descent into madness. Changes in the original script were made almost daily to the point Nicholson stopped bothering to read it.
It got so bad that he even started throwing revised scripts in the trash, knowing full well that a new version would be coming along soon after.
All this was happening while Kubrick was cruelly torturing Nicholson in another way. He was being force-fed cheese sandwiches, something he hates, as the director knew it would get him in the right agitated mood.
However, by far Duvall suffered the worst, with the actress only expressing resentment for the film to this day.
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When the actress signed onto the project in the late 1970s, she had little idea of what she was getting into. Kubrick was already known for being difficult to work with, as he strived to achieve his artistic vision no matter the cost, but The Shining was a whole new level.
His leading lady, Duvall, had already found immense success in the light-hearted 1977 classics 3 Women and Annie Hall, but the Kubrick horror was set to be a completely new venture for her.
Upon the movie’s release, Duvall spoke to Rolling Stone about her experiences on set and she was brutally honest about her ordeal.
The 72-year-old actress explained: “Going through day after day of excruciating work was almost unbearable. Jack Nicholson’s character had to be crazy and angry all the time. And in my character, I had to cry 12 hours a day, all day long, the last nine months straight, five or six days a week.”
The filming process lasted just over a year and saw Duvall and Nicholson consistently stay in character for that length of time. This all happened while the stars were separated from their families due to filming at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, England. The exterior shots of the Overlook Hotel were shot at the Timberline Lodge, Mount Hood in the Hood River area of Northern Oregon.
Duvall continued: “I was there a year and a month and there must be something to Primal Scream therapy, because after the day was over, and I’d cried for my 12 hours … After all that work, hardly anyone even criticized my performance in it, even to mention it, it seemed. The reviews were all about Kubrick like I wasn’t there.”
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Plenty of behind-the-scenes footage has been shared over the years, with Rolling Stones revealing one clip of Kubrick’s behaviour. In it, he accuses the actress of “wasting everybody’s time,” though this is just one example of what Duvall went through.
She didn’t let it get to her though, as the clip shows her replying: “If it hadn’t been for that volley of ideas and sometimes butting of heads together, it wouldn’t have come out as good as it did. And it also helps get the emotion up and the concentration up because you get more out of yourself. He knew that. And he knew that he was getting more out of me by doing that. So it was sort of like a game.”
Nicholson backed up Duvall’s recounting of the production. In the documentary, Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, he revealed Kubrick was particularly harsh to her.
The 84-year-old said: “We had a good, friendly relationship [but] he was a completely different director with Shelley.” Duvall added: “For a person as charming and lovable as Kubrick, he can do some pretty cruel things when you’re filming.”
The criticism of her performance didn’t end when filming wrapped either. The star’s character was particularly slated upon the movie’s release.
Author of the original novel that The Shining is based on, Stephen King, said: “It’s so misogynistic. I mean, Wendy Torrance is just presented as this sort of screaming dishrag.”
In a final insult, Duvall was nominated for a Golden Raspberry award. This is an organisation that celebrated the worst of Hollywood for each given year. She was a runner-up for one of the “worst performances,” of the year.
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