Shelley Duvall returns: ‘The Shining’ scream queen books first acting gig in 20 years
LOS ANGELES — Shelley Duvall, one of the stars of Stanley Kubrick’s 1973 horror masterpiece, “The Shining,” returns to the big screen in her first acting role in more than a quarter-century Friday in director Peter Weir’s thriller, “The Truman Show.”
Annie, now 78, has been acting since she was a teenager. This is her first foray onto the big screen since “The Shining.”
Annie, of course, was the most prominent young Hollywood star in the late 1970s known for such film hits as “Pretty in Pink” and “The Breakfast Club.”
Annie is in the movie as Dr. Ellen Swann, a psychiatrist who has a “stranger in the house” who becomes her patient after she takes LSD.
“The Truman Show” is based on a stage play written by David Henry Hwang, who was inspired by Weir’s own experiences as a child in 1960s America.
Hwang was born in Taiwan and fled to the U.S. with his family when his father was killed in a car accident.
“The Truman Show” is directed by Weir, who became a director after acting as a stuntman in an early “Star Wars” movie.
According to movie Web site CinemaBlend.com, “The Truman Show” is being billed as an “A” picture and Weir is hoping for a “cult-classic” rating release and an R rating to play during its opening weekend in theaters.
“There was no point in trying to make movies like this. They weren’t gonna work,” said Weir.
“One doesn’t have to be a writer to see things a writer sees, which is the kind of experience I’ve been having lately,” said Weir.
He added: “I’m not a guy who thinks he’s going to change the world but I do think I can change it for myself, for my child, for the people around me. For myself, I think there are enough things that aren’t quite right in the world.”
Weir said he will probably play the role of Dr. Swann, in his 40