'The role required me to cry, all day long, every day': Shelley Duvall on her defining performance in The Shining
Getty ImagesUS actress Shelley Duvall spoke to the BBC in 1980, just after The Shining was released. In this clip, she describes her intense role and what it was like to work with the meticulous director Stanley Kubrick.
The US actress Shelley Duvall has died at the age of 75. A protégé of the film-maker Robert Altman, she starred in seven of his films, including Nashville and Popeye. Yet arguably her defining role was as Wendy, the wife of Jack Nicholson's hotel caretaker in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror classic The Shining.
In September 1980, Duvall spoke to the BBC about her intense role and what it was like to work with the meticulous director. "My stamina has increased so much since The Shining," she said. "The role required me to cry, all day long, every day – it was so difficult being hysterical for that length of time."
In History
In History is a series which uses the BBC's unique audio and video archive to explore historical events that still resonate today. Subscribe to the accompanying weekly newsletter.
After doing many repeated takes, Duvall told the BBC, "you forget all reality other than what you're doing – it's like a miracle, it comes out better than it did before – and it's fresh, too".
"I was very pleased to have done it," she told Film 80's presenter Barry Norman, "because I learned more on that picture – and strengthened myself, and broadened the scale that my emotions can reach, I think, more than any other picture I've ever done."
See more of the interview in the video clip above.
--
If you liked this story, sign up for The Essential List newsletter – a handpicked selection of features, videos and can't-miss news, delivered to your inbox twice a week.