Director Stanley Kubrick was considered a perfectionist who had to have every detail right. However, the numerous repetitions of a scene meant that actress Shelley Duvall was completely exhausted in “The Shining”.
The director Stanley Kubrick († March 7, 1999) was known for having to perfect even the smallest aspects of his works. To do this, he had individual scenes repeated quite often until he was completely satisfied. For example, a scene with 148 repetitions made it into the Guinness Book of Records.
Shelley Duvall, who played Wendy in the film, spoke in an interview about the filming of a scene in the cult film “The Shining”, which she was very exhausting.
Here’s a trailer for The Shining:
English trailer for “The Shining” from 1980
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The actress talked about working with the ambitious director in a November 2016 interview with comingsoon.net.
She said she had nothing against Stanley’s Kubrick, even shared one or the other nice moment with him. Sometimes, however, she clashed violently with the director:
Oh, Stanley really does get a bad rap sometimes, but he was a perfectionist. We had our moments where we laughed and joked on set, but then there were times where we just blew up.
I’m a very stubborn person and I don’t like being bossed around and told what to do, but Stanley pushed and pushed to get the performance out of me that he wanted.
Shelley Duvall via comingsoon.net
One issue that made filming difficult for Duvall was that the script was not detailed enough. So the actress couldn’t understand what her character was going through mentally.
For example, while playing a loving housewife who supports her husband, Stanley wanted to see a strong, independent woman.
“It was one of the worst shooting days of my life“
Even in the well-known baseball bat scene, the actress didn’t quite know what the director wanted her to do.
Filming was exhausting for Duvall. She was out of breath several times and could no longer speak properly. ” […] The tears in the film are real!” revealed the actress.
With the scene being repeated so many times, Duvall was tired and pissed off. She even came close to walking off the set.
Stanley was annoyed with me, yelled at me, the crew was tired, we were all on set since 5am shooting this ONE scene and finally I got it right!
It was one of the worst days of my life shooting, and it looked so much easier in the script! But look what Stanley got out of me, people love this scene!
Shelley Duvall via comingsoon.net
Aside from Shelley Duvall, other actors nearly quit during the filming, as you can see in our cast member list here.
After numerous repetitions, director Kubrick was finally satisfied with the scene and the well-known baseball bat sequence was finally in the can.
The cult character Jack Torrance from “The Shining” made it as a small Easter Egg in Fallout 76. Film fans can visit the “Torrance House” here:
If you know this killer from the movies in Fallout 76, you’re old…