After 54 years, the actors who played the famous star-crossed lovers in the Oscar-winning film Romeo and Juliet, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, filed a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures for sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and fraud.
Now in their 70s, Whiting was said to be 16, and Hussey, 15, when the film was shot in September 1967.
The actors allege that there was “deceptive filming” of the controversial nude scene they did under the supervision of Franco Zeffirelli, the director of the film who died in 2019.
The lawsuit filed last week in Santa Monica Superior Court also says the film’s distributor “knew or should have known images of plaintiffs’ nude bodies were secretly and unlawfully obtained during the performance.”
California law has temporarily suspended the statute of limitations — the law that sets the maximum amount of time when parties can take action — for sexual abuse.
Paramount Pictures has yet to respond to the lawsuit.
Due to the emotional and mental anguish the stars claim they had suffered over the decades because of the underage nude scene, they are seeking more than $500 million.
According to the complaint, Zeffirelli assured them that they would wear
flesh-colored underwear during the bedroom scene. But it later changed to wearing body makeup on the morning of the shoot, with Zeffirelli guaranteeing that the position of the camera would not show nudity.
However, in the final cut, Whiting’s bare buttocks and Hussey’s bare chest were shown for several seconds.
The pair also said the deceased director told them they must act in the nude “or the picture would fail” and their careers would be hurt. This left the two underaged actors believing “they had no choice but to act nude in body makeup as demanded.”
This particular scene was featured in Hussey’s 2018 memoir The Girl in the Balcony where she recalled how she confronted Zeffirelli following a “small panic attack,” but that he assured her she would be wearing a nightgown.
She also wrote in her memoir that the scene was filmed on a closed set and there was one incident where a “dirty old man” on the crew had to be removed.
Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey.
Change of heart
Hussey had a different tone in 2018 when asked about the nude scene, justifying its importance in an interview with Variety. “Nobody my age had done that before,” she said, adding that Zeffirelli had shot it tastefully. “It was needed for the film.”
And in a Fox News interview also in 2018, she said, “It wasn’t that big of a deal… And Leonard wasn’t shy at all! In the middle of shooting, I just completely forgot I didn’t have clothes on.”
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So why sue now? Tony Marinozzi, the manager of the two actors, said they were afraid of the possible effect on their careers and that they would not be believed.
“They trusted Franco. At 16, as actors, they took his lead so that he would not violate the trust they had. Franco was their friend, and frankly, at 16, what do they do? There are no options. There was no #MeToo.”
In addition, Solomon Gresen, the lawyer of the two, stressed that “These were very young, naive children in the ‘60s who had no understanding of what was about to hit them.”
The complaint alleges that the company is “repackaging what is essentially pornography,”
“All of a sudden they were famous at a level they never expected, and in addition they were violated in a way they didn’t know how to deal with,” Gresen said.
The 1968 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s play won at the Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design. It also became a staple learning material for English and Literature classes.