Earlier this week, excerpts from an interview Dr. Phil McGraw conducted with veteran actress Shelley Duvall went viral.
The transcript and the affiliated clips from the sit-down made major headlines due to their heartbreaking nature, as Duvall opened up about her need for help.
Best known for her role in The Shining, Duvall admitted that she has a serious mental illness.
"I loved Robin Williams," Duvall say at one point in the Q&A when asked about her former Popeye costar, who killed himself in 2014.
She then added: "I don’t think he’s dead."
Where do you think he is, McGraw asks?
"Shape-shifting," Duvall responds.
She also says she has seen Williams at various times since he committed suicide and said she believes that she’s being stalked by the "Sheriff of Nottingham."
The interview will air today around the country and it will feature Duvall confessing that she’s "very sick" and is in need of "help."
"That’s why I’m here," replied Dr. Phil.
But is it really?
Countless Internet users have taken Dr. Phil to task for so clearly exploiting someone in Duvall’s position.
She clearly needs professional assistance and her life is clearly headed in a very bad direction.
But why is she on television? What possible good comes from airing this kind of exchange in front of millions of people?
While Dr. Phil is likely counting his hundred-dollar bills and laughing over his ratings spike, those on Twitter are lighting him up for being a horrible person.
To wit:
The daughter of acclaimed director Stanley Kubrick, meanwhile, who directed Duvall in The Shining, penned an "open letter" to McGraw on Twitter yesterday.
It said it was addressing the doctor’s "exploitive use of Shelly Duvall [as] a form of LURID ENTERTAINMENT," slamming Phil for this "shameful" act and continuing as follows:
"Unquestionably, this is purely a form of lurid and exploitive entertainment – it’s appallingly cruel.
"Whatever dignity a mere unfortunate creature might have in this world is denied by your displaying her in this way.
"I recoil in complete disgust. I hope others will join me in boycotting your utterly heartless form of entertainment, because it has nothing to do with compassionate healing."
Check out the full letter here:
We can already see Dr. Phil’s response in our head.
We can already imagine him defending himself by claiming he was trying to help others with mental illness by airing this interview; that he’s hoping these people realize it’s okay to accept their situations and ask for help.
And we can already envision our response to this claim:
Shut the eff up, Dr. Phil. You should be ashamed of yourself.
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