If you’ve ever seen “The Shawshank Redemption,” you probably recall those claustrophobic, gut-churning sequences captured in solitary confinement. After commandeering the prison’s auditory system to play classical music across the hallways and courtyards, Andy Dufresne spends two weeks in a dark cell sequestered away from his friends and fellow inmates. He then returns to “the hole” for two grueling months after threatening to reveal a massive conspiracy at the core of Shawshank’s corrupt political infrastructure (via IMDb). That’s a lot of time away from the sun.
To prepare, Tim Robbins reportedly asked to be placed in solitary confinement himself. He felt it was a necessary endeavor in order to fully capture the mind of an inmate — or at least as much as someone who’s never spent time in jail can (per Definition). “I asked to be locked up,” the actor shared later on. “It gives you a good idea of what the isolation is, and what the loneliness of it is. Acting the part of someone who’s incarcerated doesn’t require any specific knowledge of incarceration” (via ABC News). While Robbins only spent the duration of an afternoon in solitary confinement, as What Culture reports, the effect was profound enough to reveal what it’s like to be subjected to the torment of total isolation. He also observed animals in captivity at the zoo to examine the effects of involuntary confinement from the outside.
