Why ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Cast Sues Paramount Over Nudity Scene, 55 Years After Film’s Release
Why have actors Olivia Hussey (71) and Leonard Whiting (72) accused of fraud and sexual abuse? Why are they filing this lawsuit more than five decades after the Oscar-winning movie was released? We explain.
The lead actors of Romeo and Juliet sued Paramount Pictures for more than $500 million over a nude scene in the 1968 film, which was filmed when they were teenagers.
Olivia Hussey (71) and Leonard Whiting (72) were 15 and 16 years old respectively at the time. They are suing the studio in Los Angeles County Superior Court for sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud, the AP reported.
Why have actors accused of cheating and sexual abuse? Why are they suing the Oscar-winning film more than 50 years after its release? We explain.
Actors have said that they were forced to act in the nudity scene through lies and manipulation.
The scene depicts Romeo and Juliet in bed together after their wedding. The actors’ lawsuit alleges that film director Franco Zeffirelli originally said they would wear flesh-colored clothing in the scene. However, on the day of the shoot, he told them that they would not have to wear anything but body makeup, but that the camera would be positioned so as not to show nudity, the AP reported. The scene shows both teenage actors partially nude, so the lawsuit now claims they were filmed naked without their knowledge, in violation of laws against indecency and child exploitation.
The suit also claimed that Zeffirelli told the actors that they had to act nude or the film would fail. Actors were “convinced that they had no choice but to perform naked in body makeup as requested.”
The couple are accused of suffering years of “mental anguish and emotional distress” and losing job opportunities, according to The Guardian.
At the time, Hussey and Whiting both won Golden Globes, but they said the success they experienced wasn’t equal to watching the movie. Zeffirelli’s adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet remains a classic, often used as an introduction to the work by American schoolchildren.
“What they were told and what happened are two different things,” Tony Marinosi, the cast’s business manager, was quoted as saying by The Guardian. “They believed in Franco [Zeffirelli]. At 16, as actors, they guided him that he would not violate the trust they had.
Franco is their friend, apparently, at 16, what are they doing? No options. No #MeToo. Paramount has yet to respond to the lawsuit, while Zeffirelli died in 2019.
Why has the case been registered now?
In 2020, the state of California gave people a three-year grace period to file child sexual abuse complaints even after the statute of limitations had expired. The window closes on December 31, and Hussey and Whiting’s lawsuit was filed on December 30.
After the Dec. 31 deadline, people over the age of 40 will no longer be able to file lawsuits for child sexual abuse in California.
Solomon Grayson, who represents the actors, told AFP that the decades since Romeo and Juliet was produced did not diminish the damage it had caused, especially that it had been re-released. “(Paramount) has pictures that they know are underage nudity that should be removed from the film. That would definitely be the beginning,” Grayson said.
