Shelley Duvall‘s final screen role, in the low-budget horror movie The Forest Hills, has gotten a blessing from Dan Gilroy, Duvall’s longtime life partner.
“It took a while for Shelley to accept this role,” says Gilroy, 77, “But she, in time, saw it as connecting with her history in the movies.”
Duvall died July 11 at age 75. The film, which released Oct. 4 and is available on streaming, marks Duvall’s first return to horror since stunning audiences in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film The Shining, considered one of the greatest horror films ever made.
Directed by Scott Goldberg, Forest Hills was originally to feature a cameo appearance from Duvall. The role was later expanded and captured between over 2022 and 2023 at locations near Duvall’s and Gilroy’s home in Blanco, Texas.
Though she was suffering from advanced diabetes at the time, Duvall was capable of delivering a professional and focused performance.
“The way the crew treated her with extreme patience, gratitude to be working with her and almost a reverence for what she had accomplished, made her very comfortable. She was smiling and laughing for the first time in quite a while,” says Gilroy.
Duvall reemerged in the public eye after a 20-year absence when she became the subject of a THR profile in 2020. She and Gilroy met filming 1990’s Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme for the Disney Channel. They remained together until her death.
“She would always say, ‘I am an actress.’ Never, ‘I was an actress,” Gilroy adds.
A behind-the-scenes featurette from the set of Forest Hills contains Duvall’s final interview.
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