10 Directors Who Nearly Killed Their Actors

4. Stanley Kubrick Traumatised Shelley Duvall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMRmV1Sj6j4 Stanley Kubrick perfectly fits the description of a director who is brilliantly insane, keen to put his actors through the wringer until everything about a shot or a scene is absolutely flawless. The results speak for themselves, though the mental states of his actors do not, specifically Shelley Duvall during the filming of Kubrick's horror masterpiece The Shining. The shoot was scheduled for 17 weeks but took around a whole year, because of Kubrick's obsessive penchant for getting an exhausting amount of coverage. Shelley Duvall seemed to take more punishment than anyone else who worked with Kubrick, having to perform a take in which she swings a baseball bat at Jack Nicholson a ridiculous 127 times, which stands as a world record. So exasperated was Duvall that her hair began to fall out from the stress of Kubrick's method, and in the end it was suggested that Kubrick would shout at and taunt her in order to get a better performance. While that he certainly did, at what cost? Duvall later remarked that in spite of the torment, she learned more about acting from Kubrick than anyone else. However, given that she only acted intermittently after the film wrapped and has now become a recluse, one has to wonder whether the director's abuse has stuck with her somewhat.