Shelley Duvall: Here's Why I Quit Acting for 20 Years

She's returning to the screen in an independent horror film
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 22, 2023 5:25 PM CST

Shelley Duvall, most famous for her role as Wendy Torrance in The Shining, has returned to acting after a 20-year hiatus—and at 73, she hasn't ruled out an Oscar. Elaine Aradillas at People, who visited Duvall in a small town in Texas Hill Country, said Duvall winked and laughed when she said Jessica Tandy "won an Oscar when she was 80. I can still win." Duvall, who was widely praised for her performances in The Shining, Popeye, and numerous Robert Altman films, left Hollywood for Texas in 2002.

Duvall told Aradillas that her movie roles dried up in the 1990s and that she moved to Texas after her brother was diagnosed with spinal cancer. "It's the longest sabbatical I ever took," she said, "but it was for really important reasons—to get in touch with my family again." Duvall's acting hiatus came to an end in 2022, when director Scott Goldberg asked her to appear in The Forest Hills, an independent horror film that will be released next month, Yahoo reports. Duvall told Aradillas that she enjoyed being in front of the camera again and hopes to continue acting. "Acting again—it's so much fun. It enriches you," she said.

Duvall said acting wasn't as lucrative people might think. "You didn't get paid much—just scale plus 10%," she said. "They thought women would just marry and the husband's going to support them. But that doesn't happen for everybody." Aradillas said Duvall is well known in the town where she has lived quietly for decades, though some may be surprised that she was a Hollywood icon. She said that when she placed a takeout order for "blackened tilapia, crab cake with wedge fries, a side salad, hard-boiled eggs, a sweetened iced tea, and a Dr Pepper with an extra cup of ice," the waitress asked, "Is this for Shelley Duvall?" (More Shelley Duvall stories.)

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