Her partner of more than 35 years, Dan Gilroy, also addressed why “things went downhill” for the Shining actress, speaking about her Dr. Phil appearance and “paranoid” delusions.
The Shining star Shelley Duvall just gave a rare interview to the New York Times, in which she addressed her absence from the spotlight and her longtime partner opened up about some of the hardships she’s dealt with in that time.
Duvall hasn’t acted since the 2002 film “Manna from Heaven,” effectively retiring at the time. In the years since, she’s been somewhat reclusive, aside from a highly-publicized appearance on “Dr. Phil” in 2016 and her role in the upcoming horror movie, The Forest Hills (photo from film above right).
Speaking with the Times from her Toyota 4Runner in Texas Hill Country, where she lives with longtime partner Dan Gilroy in an “isolated but serene” one-story home, Duvall, 74, reflected on what happened to her career.
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“I was a star; I had leading roles,” she told the publication, which noted she then “solemnly” shook her head. “People think it’s just aging, but it’s not. It’s violence.”
“How would you feel if people were really nice, and then, suddenly, on a dime … they turn on you?” she elaborated. “You would never believe it unless it happens to you. That’s why you get hurt, because you can’t really believe it’s true.”
Throughout the rest of the profile, Duvall reflected fondly on the early days of her career, working on The Shining and her new gig, while her partner, Gilroy, addressed some of her troubles.
Of the Dr. Phil appearance — which he didn’t know was even happening until after the fact and for which McGraw got a lot of backlash — he simply said, “It did nothing for her. It just put her on the map as an oddity.”
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But things had already started to take a turn years before she appeared on Dr. Phil’s program, with Gilroy going all the way back to the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which destroyed their Los Angeles home.
“It was great, all those years in L.A., really terrific. And when we moved, after the earthquake, it was terrific in Texas. Things went downhill when she started becoming afraid of things, maybe didn’t want to work. It’s really hard to pin it on any one thing,” he said.
“She became paranoid and just kind of delusional, thinking she was being attacked. She tried to make calls to the F.B.I., and asked our neighbor to protect us,” he continued. “It was just shocking that, suddenly, from normal, it went south like that.”
Despite her hardships, many who worked with her on The Forest Hills praised her “acting abilities” and presence while working on the film, due out later this year.
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