If you watched the widely circulated 30-second preview for Friday’s episode of Dr. Phil, you know everything you need to know about where 67-year-old iconic actor Shelley Duvall is today. Of course, you don’t need to know any of it, but you may have been interested, and I don’t think that should be held against you. The image of a disheveled, clearly ill Duvall babbling nonsense was so shocking that it made people remember that they cared about an artist who was rather rudely described as “a woman forgotten by the world” by Dr. Phil McGraw on his show. (Note: The enduring legacy of The Shining alone is enough to ensure that Duvall will never be forgotten, and don’t even get me started on her work that is less synonymous with her name but no less brilliant, like her stunning turn in Robert Altman’s 1977 movie 3 Women.) As exploitative as Dr. Phil’s interview promised to be, there was a degree of reporting involved in showing Duvall in this state. We simply hadn’t seen her in a while, and while the pitfalls of fame provide a tale as old as Hollywood itself, the power of that story isn’t diminished regardless of how many times it is told.
That said, those who dismissed the episode outright after seeing that 30-second clip were right to do so. The show was a predatory display of mental illness, presented with very little insight or explanation. Here’s Shelley Duvall, and here is a laundry list of things coming out of her mouth that you’ve never heard before, it said. How much agency she was exercising by showing up, and what she even thought about putting herself on display in this state went predictably unexamined. It was pure voyeurism.