Although Shelley Duvall enjoyed plenty of success, she opted to leave show business behind in 2002, prompting many to wonder about her and her whereabouts. “I was a star; I had leading roles,” she recalled nostalgically during a rare and candid interview with the New York Times in April 2024. “People think it’s just aging, but it’s not. It’s violence,” she added cryptically. When pressed about her use of the word “violence,” Duvall asked the reporter, Saskia Solomon, “How would you feel if people were really nice, and then, suddenly, on a dime they turn on you? You would never believe it unless it happens to you. That’s why you get hurt, because you can’t really believe it’s true.”
Prior to that, Duvall agreed to an interview with Dr. Phil McGraw wherein an unrecognizable Shelley Duvall tells Dr. Phil she’s very sick. Ultimately, McGraw was criticized for exploiting and perhaps even aggrandizing what some perceived as Duvall’s struggles with mental health. “There [should] be laws to protect mentally ill people from TV talk show predators like @DrPhil who is exploiting [Shelley] Duvall for his own gain,” actor Mia Farrow famously tweeted. As for Duvall, when asked about the experience, she flatly told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021, “I found out the kind of person he is the hard way.”
