10 Real Reasons Movie Characters Seemed So Sinister
1. Jack Nicholson Was Driven A Little Crazy By Stanley Kubrick's Endless Takes - The Shining
It's extremely well known that director Stanley Kubrick put Shelley Duvall through hell while shooting The Shining, and while his experience can't even begin to measure up to hers, Jack Nicholson didn't exactly have a picnic either.
Nicholson may play crazy as well as anyone ever has, but in this case his supremely disturbing performance was exacerbated by Kubrick's preference for dozens and dozens of takes of even relatively mundane scenes.
But Kubrick knew what he was doing, that putting his cast through an endurance trial would bring out the emotions he desired most - in Duvall it was exhaustion, while in Nicholson it was frenzied frustration.
And so, when we're watching Nicholson become increasingly unhinged, there's a fraction of emotional truth in those scenes, of an irritated Nicholson deflecting his possibly-homicidal rage for Kubrick into his performance.
Young Danny Lloyd, however, apparently had no idea he was even making a horror film at the time, so Kubrick clearly wasn't a total monster.