Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicholson starred in the 1974 classic thriller film, Chinatown. The film was helmed by Roman Polanski, who was known to be a difficult director to work with. Dunaway had difficult times with the director while filming Chinatown, but she claimed that Jack Nicholson helped her through some of these difficult times.
However, Shelley Duvall, who worked with him on The Shining, had no such story to share even though Stanley Kubrick made her experience a nightmare. Nicholson saw that Duvall was undergoing emotional turmoil during the film and chose to do nothing to help her.
Jack Nicholson Helped Faye Dunaway During The Filming Of Chinatown
Faye Dunaway had a pretty complicated time working on Roman Polanski‘s Chinatown. While Polanski was a challenging filmmaker, she proved to be an equally challenging and demanding actress. She opened up about her experiences in the 1974 film as well as other films in her career in the HBO documentary, Faye.
She shared in the documentary that Polanski was undoubtedly a great director, but called him a “terror” to work with. She was sure that Polanski shared the same feeling about her. She shared (via PEOPLE):
We had difficult times, he and I, but he’s a great film director. Roman the terror. But he thought I was a terror also, I’m sure. We had a pretty complicated time.
She also revealed an instance when the director yanked a piece of hair off her head as he was frustrated by the hair falling on her face during a shot. She went berserk on the director and stormed off from the set. Dunaway shared that Jack Nicholson helped her through the difficult times on set. She shared, “Jack helped, though. Nicholson being there made all the difference.”
She shared that Nicholson nicknamed her ‘Dread’ for ‘The Dreaded Dunaway’ after the hair incident with Polanski. She shared that he still called her ‘Dread’ and admitted that she loved the name.
Jack Nicholson Never Helped Shelley Duvall Through Her Traumatic Experience In The Shining
While Jack Nicholson was the knight in shining armor for Faye Dunaway, he did not lift a finger to help Shelley Duvall in The Shining. Duvall, who passed away on July 11, was open about her difficult experience working in the Stanley Kubrick movie. In her 2021 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she shared:
[Kubrick] doesn’t print anything until at least the 35th take. Thirty-five takes, running and crying and carrying a little boy, it gets hard. And full performance from the first rehearsal. That’s difficult.
When asked whether Kubrick was unusually cruel to her, Duvall shared, “He’s got that streak in him. He definitely has that.” But she also shared that he was “very warm and friendly” to her at other times and just wanted to sit down and talk with her and Nicholson for hours.
Angelica Huston, who was Nicholson’s girlfriend at the time, felt that the actor and director were ganging up on Duvall. Huston shared they “didn’t seem to be all that sympathetic”. She shared that whenever she saw Duvall, the actress was “a bit tortured, shook up.” Huston didn’t believe that anyone on the set was particularly careful of her.
Duvall shared that Nicholson had told her that he didn’t know how she managed to cry 12 hours a day on the set of The Shining. The accounts seem to paint the picture that Nicholson did nothing in particular to help Duvall.
Chinatown is now available for streaming on Max, while The Shining is available on AMC+.
