How AHS’ Jessica Lange Was Almost In The Shining (& Why She Wasn’t Cast)

Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining was a nightmare for actress Shelley Duvall, but she was almost spared of all that stress as American Horror Story’s Jessica Lange could have played Wendy Torrance instead. Back in 1977, Stephen King’s third novel The Shining arrived to establish him as a preeminent author in the horror genre, and only three years after its publication, the novel made the jump to the big screen thanks to Stanley Kubrick, thought the final product is very different to the source material.

The Shining tells the story of Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic who accepts a job as the off-season caretaker of the Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies. He takes his wife Wendy and son Danny (Danny Lloyd) with him, but after a snowstorm leaves them cut off from the outside world, the supernatural forces inhabiting the hotel begin to take over and play with Jack’s already fragile sanity. Meanwhile, Danny struggles with his powers, referred to as “the shining”, which awaken the hotel’s evil forces. While Stephen King has famously expressed his dislike towards the movie as many things from his novel were changed, The Shining is now regarded as one of the best horror movies ever made, and all the behind-the-scenes drama has also contributed to its status as a classic.

Kubrick is not only remembered as one of the best filmmakers to ever live but also one of the most perfectionists and borderline obsessive, and there are many myths around his behavior on the set of The Shining. What isn’t a myth, however, is how he and Shelley Duvall didn’t get along and frequently argued on set, and the whole experience was too stressful for her, becoming ill and even collapsing on set. But as it happens with most movies, Duvall wasn’t the first option for the role of Wendy Torrance, and at one point in pre-production, Jessica Lange was considered for it.

After reading the novel, Jack Nicholson suggested Jessica Lange for the role of Wendy as he felt she fitted the novel’s description of the character, but Kubrick had a different idea for her. The director saw Wendy as an emotionally fragile character, which is the complete opposite of King’s description. Kubrick explained that he never believed King’s vision of Wendy, so he went for a desperate and co-dependent character so it would make sense for her to stay with someone like Jack for so long. With that in mind, Jessica Lange definitely didn’t fit Kubrick’s idea, even if she would have made an excellent version of King’s Wendy Torrance, and Kubrick found that fragility he so wanted in Shelley Duvall.

By the time The Shining was released, Jessica Lange was known for playing Angelique in Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz, and losing the role of Wendy Torrance didn’t stop her career, as she went on to appear in a variety of movies, winning two Oscars and many more awards. Nowadays, she’s best known for her roles in different seasons of American Horror Story, as were Murder House, Asylum, Coven, Freak Show, and Apocalypse. Shelley Duvall’s career, on the other hand, didn’t take off as expected after The Shining, with her most relevant roles being those of Olive Oyl in Popeye, Susan Frankenstein in Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie short-film, and Gabby in Casper Meets Wendy. Duvall retired in 2002 and has stayed away from the public eye since then. Jessica Lange as Wendy Torrance in The Shining would have made a very different movie, though whether it would have made it better or not is up to every viewer.

About The Author

Adrienne Tyler
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Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Prior to Screen Rant, she wrote for Pop Wrapped, 4 Your Excitement (4YE), and D20Crit, where she was also a regular guest at Netfreaks podcast. She was also a contributor for FanSided’s BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings.

When she’s not writing, you can find her trying to learn a new language, watching hockey (go Avs!), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round.

Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. It was great.

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