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As he lived in England, Stanley Kubrick was not at all familiar with the "Heeeeere's Johnny" line (from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962)) that Jack Nicholson improvised. He very nearly didn't use it.
Because Danny Lloyd was so young, and since it was his first acting job, Stanley Kubrick was highly protective of the child. During the shooting of the movie, Lloyd was under the impression that the film he was making was a drama, not a horror movie. In fact, when Wendy carries Danny away while shouting at Jack in the Colorado Lounge, she is actually carrying a life-size dummy, so Lloyd would not have to be in the scene. He only realized the truth several years later, when he was shown a heavily edited version of the film. He did not see the uncut version of the film until he was seventeen, eleven years after he had made it.
For the scene in which Jack breaks down the bathroom door, the props department built a door that could be easily broken. However, Jack Nicholson had worked as a volunteer fire marshal and tore it apart far too easily. The props department were then forced to build a stronger door.
According to Shelley Duvall, the famous "Here's Johnny!" scene took three days to film and the use of sixty doors.
Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall have expressed open resentment against the reception of this film, feeling that critics and audiences credited Stanley Kubrick solely for the film's success without considering the efforts of the actors, crew, or the strength of Stephen King's underlying material. Nicholson and Duvall have said that the film was one of the hardest of their careers. In fact, Nicholson considers Duvall's performance the most difficult role he's ever seen an actress take on. Duvall also considered her performance the hardest of her life.
At the time of release, it was the policy of the MPAA to not allow the portrayal of blood in trailers that would be approved for all audiences. In 1980, the concept of green band and red band trailers were being introduced by the MPAA. Bizarrely, the trailer consists entirely of the shot of blood pouring out of the elevator. Stanley Kubrick had convinced the board the blood flooding out of the elevator was actually rusty water. The water also had red dye on it.
Vivian Kubrick: In the party scene. She wore a black dress and sat on the right side of the sofa closest to the bar.
Norman Gay: The injured guest who frightens Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall) by saying "Great party, isn't it?"
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