TMS Muse of the Week: Shelley Duvall
(Doug Pizac)
When viewers see the name or face of character actress Shelley Duvall, some think of her popular anthology TV program “Faerie Tale Theatre” (1982-87); or her many movies with mentor and filmmaker Robert Altman, which includes the famously ill-fated Popeye (1980), where she fittingly played the title character’s wife Olive Oyl. But when I see a reference to Shelley, I think of a quote from an old 1981 article where she was interviewed by film critic Roger Ebert. When they get to the subject of Stanley Kubrick’s screen adaptation of Stephen King’s horror The Shining (1980), Shelley says this: “Going through day after day of excruciating work, Jack Nicholson's character had to be crazy and angry all the time. And my character had to cry 12 hours a day, all day long, the last nine months straight, five or six days a week. I was there a year and a month. After all that work, hardly anyone even criticized my performance in it, even to mention it, it seemed like. The reviews were all about Kubrick, like I wasn't there.” This quote is also at the end of Ebert’s Great Movies inclusion for The Shining from 2006 as well, a piece I read in my early years of film school. It was one of the first times I realized the director is traditionally more respected, beloved and attended to than the actor in cinema. Shelley is next to Tippi Hedren as the two most recognized examples of a leading lady in horror being mistreated by her legendary director [for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964) in Tippi’s case].
Shelley has retrospectively admitted working on The Shining made her realize how naïve and sheltered she was the first decade of her career only working on films with Altman and his usual team; save for a supporting role as a hip rock journalist in Woody Allen’s classic romcom Annie Hall (1977). The Shining was the first time she was a part of a big, elaborate studio production, and with castmates and crew members she hadn’t met before. Very quickly, Shelley felt overwhelmed, and I can imagine why. The wide-eyed, raven-haired young woman didn’t actually seek out a career in movies, and got a lucky, fateful break of bumping into Altman at a local party in her native Houston, TX; where the auteur asked her if she would like to be in his movie. Altman was about to shoot his quirky dark comedy Brewster McCloud (1970) in town and found the love interest for Bud Cort’s Brewster on the spot. For the next eight years, Shelley was a regular collaborator of the ‘new Hollywood’ movement after the studio system had collapsed and small budget and/or independent film was growing. Off camera, she had publicized relationship with singer-songwriter and Annie Hall co-star Paul Simon in 1976-78 followed by dating Beatle Ringo Starr in 1978-1980. Shelley’s preference for musicians as boyfriends continues to this day, as she’s been living with Madonna’s former bandmate and ex-boyfriend Dan Gilroy since 1989.
(Lion’s Gate Films / 20th Century Studios)
The artsy star’s performances in Altman movies like McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Thieves Like Us (1974) and 3 Women (1977) were well regarded, with the latter winning her Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival. Some of the shoots weren’t cakewalks though [see: Shelley and Altman clashing on how the former’s role of a country music groupie in Nashville (1975) should be portrayed]; and The Shining only furthered her witnessing the rough sides of Hollywood. This included infamous tales of what Shelley [as well as Jack and Scatman Crothers] had to endure during the tedious film shoot. Hundreds of takes for scenes where Shelley’s timid Wendy Torrance was required to cry or shout or run away from her on-screen husband also named Jack. Kubrick apparently took no mercy on the intimidated actors, especially Shelley, whom he insisted needed to be hysterical every day of the shoot. Now, one might assume some of this is a bit legend, as is the case with a lot of Hollywood gossip. But unfortunately, Kubrick’s daughter Vivian shot a short making-of documentary on the filming of The Shining. During the doc you can see the director flippantly giving his leading lady a hard time. “Don’t sympathize with Shelley. It doesn’t help her.”
After the torturous production wrapped and The Shining was released, Shelley was hit with a Worst Actress nom at the Razzies, but did continue working after the vastly mixed reception for the future classic, as well as Popeye. She hosted, produced and sometimes acted in the popular, family friendly TV program “Faerie Tale Theatre” for five years; and continued to choose interesting films like Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits (1981), Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie (1984), Fred Schepisi’s Roxanne (1987), Steven Soderbergh’s The Underneath (1995) and Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady (1996). Like a lot of my MOTW subjects, Shelley all but vanished from the public eye unannounced. We know the allusive lady moved back to Texas right after the historic 1994 earthquake in Northridge, CA occurred and officially retired from acting in the midst of Y2K. Various rumors and theories surfaced over the years on why exactly she disappeared, especially when an alarming interview on Dr. Phil’s program aired in 2016. But when we do get a rare update from the acting legend, it mostly sounds like she just got bored of fame and wanted to go back to ordinary life. Since her prime, acclaim for Shelley’s performances has only grown, and the Razzies founders even apologized in early 2022 for the past nomination since her stressful experience became public [though a bit too little, too late by this point].
Thanks to social media and fan conventions, friends and former colleagues of Shelley have assured movie fans that no, she hasn’t gone ‘crazy,’ and she’s very proud of her career [including The Shining]. A success, a survivor and an icon for all time.