![\"Jack](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Jack-Nicholson-The-Shining-Stanley-Kubrick-Far-Out-Magazine.jpg-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Warner Bros. \/ YouTube Still)<\/p>\n
Sat 27 September 2025 18:15, UK <\/p>\n
In Hollywood history, there are few stranger rumours than one which has swirled around Jack Nicholson<\/a> and Stanley Kubrick for decades following their seminal collaboration on 1980\u2019s The Shining.<\/p>\n Kubrick was always a director who lent himself to mystery and mythologising, what with his penchant for being a demanding, meticulous filmmaker. Couple that with the fact he was rarely seen in public for decades at a time, and stories of the eccentric, reclusive genius behind movies like Dr Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, and Eyes Wide Shut became their own cottage industry. <\/p>\n Over the years, while it was generally accepted that Kubrick wasn\u2019t like most directors, the man himself admitted to getting pretty peeved<\/a> about some of the outlandish rumours that attached themselves to him. For instance, in 1987, he pushed back against the notion that he was reclusive, instead arguing that he invited friends and industry types to his palatial home in Hertfordshire all the time. <\/p>\n The Full Metal Jacket helmer also took issue with the absurd whispers that he always wore a football helmet in the car, limited his driver to 30 miles per hour, and hired a helicopter to spray his garden with pest-killer to get rid of mosquitoes. \u201cI lead a relatively normal life, I think,\u201d the bemused auteur insisted, \u201cBut this stuff has been written and rewritten so often it takes on a life of its own\u201d.<\/p>\n Speaking of, have you heard the rumours that Nicholson was forced to eat nothing but cheese sandwiches for two weeks while shooting The Shining? If not, the story is truly as simple as it sounds. Kubrick was known for utilising some, shall we say, unique methods to draw emotional performances out of his stars, and to do this with Nicholson<\/a>, he supposedly ordered catering to only feed the man cheese sandwiches because it was his least favourite food. <\/p>\n In Kubrick\u2019s eyes, forcing Nicholson to eat something he despised every single day would make him so furious and despondent that it would play into his performance as a man losing his mind. <\/p>\n It sounds absurd, yes, but understand this: it\u2019s long been common knowledge that Shelley Duvall suffered pretty badly on the set of The Shining thanks to Kubrick needing her character to be in a state of constant panic and fear at all times while insisting on shooting huge numbers of takes.<\/p>\n This led to extreme physical and emotional exhaustion, which Duvall corroborated<\/a> in multiple interviews, once telling The Hollywood Reporter that she would listen to sad music before takes to get herself in the right headspace. But, she confessed, \u201cAfter a while, your body rebels. It says, \u2018Stop doing this to me. I don\u2019t want to cry every day\u2019. And sometimes just that thought alone would make me cry.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Jack](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Jack-Nicholson-The-Shining-Stanley-Kubrick-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Jack Nicholson\u2019s potentially cheese sandwich-assisted breakdown in \u2018The Shining\u2019. (Credit: Alamy)<\/p>\n