This is how Shelley Duvall is today, the actress from The Shining who had to stop acting due to the trauma the film caused her

The scene of Jack Torrance breaking the bathroom door where Wendy is hiding in The Shining is famous even among those who haven’t seen the movie. Shelley Duvallthe actress who so well represented a woman tormented by her husband’s madness, was no longer the same after the filming of the film.

Duvall was around 30 years old when The Shining was released in theaters around the world. The movie of Stanley Kubrick starring Jack Nicholson was a box office success, but above all on a cultural level. To this day there are those who claim that it is the best psychological horror film of all time.

However, for some, the weight of fame and excessive recognition demands something in return. In the case of The Shining, the prolific production of the director of A Clockwork Orange he kept part of Duvall’s mind.

Shelley Duvall as Wendy in “The Shining.”

The future of Shelley Duvall

The filming of The Shining was a torment for Shelley Duvall.

The actress did not get along well with the director, to the point that he ended up isolating her and causing her nerves and stress that left her with irreparable consequences.

The physical and emotional effort that Kubrick demanded of him and his constant arguments with him took a toll on Duvall’s mental health. The nervous breakdown led to hair loss and, over time, impacted his mood.

Shelley Duvall in “The Forest Hills.”

Over time, Duvall went so far as to declare that Robin Williams was alive when in reality he was not and it turned out that he was trying to contact Aliens and he had visions in the garden of his house.

Since 1980, his career, which promised to be full of successes after being consecrated at Cannes 1977, gradually faded away.. During the 80s and 90s he divided his work between acting, scriptwriting and production and finally in 2002 he retired permanently from Hollywood.

Duvall only reappeared in 2023, in the independent horror film The Forest Hillswhere -coincidentally or not- she plays a mother who has hallucinations.