Shelley Duvall returns to acting after 20 years

The 73 year old will make her return in the new indie horror film ‘The Forest Hills’.

Horror fans will be pleased to hear Shelley Duvall is returning to the silver screen. She is best known for her role as the wife of Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance, Wendy, in The Shining. The actor famously stepped away from acting in 2002, and will now be playing the role of a disturbed man’s mother in the new indie horror The Forest Hills.

The film follows Rico, played by Chiko Mendez, who endures a head trauma whilst camping and is haunted by nightmarish visions. Under the direction of Scott Goldberg, Duvall will play Rico’s mother who acts as his inner voice, alongside the likes of Edward Furlong and Dee Wallace.

The actor previously stepped away from performing after announcing her retirement at the age of 56. Many felt this was due to her treatment on the set of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, as it was revealed in 2016 on Dr. Phil that she still struggled with untreated mental illness.

In a 2021 interview, the actor was emotional when she told The Hollywood Reporter she would have to “To wake up on a Monday morning, so early, and realise that you had to cry all day because it was scheduled — I would just start crying.” Over a 56-week shoot, she said, “after a while, your body rebels. It says: ‘Stop doing this to me. I don’t want to cry every day.”

Duvall has also worked on titles including Annie Hall, Popeye, Time Bandits, Roxanne and The Portrait of a Lady. She has garnered several awards for her acting, including a Peabody Award, Cannes Film Festival’s Best Actress, two Emmy nominations and a BAFTA nomination. 

It is said that the film’s creative team in The Forest Hills are big fans of The Shining, and are excited to have Duvall in their project. They said to Deadline that “Shelley contributed to The Shining being an absolute masterpiece by giving her all, and performing in a way that really showcased the fear and horror of a mother in isolation”. 

The film is yet to have a release date. 

Writer
Ella Chadwick
Banner Image Credit
Warner Bros Pictures