A Seth Abramovitch interview piece with Shelley Duvall appeared this morning on the Hollywood Reporter website.
Dr. Phil’s 2016 interview with Duvall heartlessly exploited her eccentric manner and skewed mentality; Abramovitch is just as observational but more accepting and certainly less judgmental.
The 71 year-old actress has seemingly declined in more ways than you can shake a stick at, and she certainly radiates eccentricity. Gray-haired, heavier, bag lady-ish, never leaves her car (which is jammed with stuff), somewhat scatter-brained and at the same time lucid, a chain-smoker of Parliaments (ugghh….my mother used to smoke those).
But she has a life of sorts, living somewhere in the Texas hill country west of Austin, sharing a home with former Madonna band member Dan Gilroy. Surviving, a bit wiggy, hanging in there.
The fact that Duvall barely resembles her 1980s self (much less Wendy Torrance in The Shining) is vaguely distressing, I suppose, but aging can be a cruel process. The basic takeaway is that Duvall is, after a fashion, more or less okay. An odd duck but a woman with her own spiritual presence. Leave well enough alone.
Is there any chance that HBO Max will stream a boxy (1.37:1) HD version of The Shining, as they did last year with Full Metal Jacket?
