Former teen actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting are suing Paramount over their nude scene in 1968's Romeo and Juliet, which they say was filmed without their knowledge when they were just 15 and 16, respectively.
As reported by Variety, 1968's big screen adaptation of Romeo and Juliet - which won four Academy Awards - was directed by the late director Franco Zeffirelli and includes a bedroom scene where you can see Hussey's bare breasts and Whiting's buttocks.
Zeffirelli had promised the two actors, who are now both in their 70s, that there would be no nudity in the film and that they would be allowed to wear flesh-colored undergarments in the bedroom scene in question. However, the story changed in the final days of filming when they claim Zeffirelli encouraged them to "perform in the nude with body makeup, 'or the Picture would fail.'"
Even then, Hussey and Whiting say, Zeffirelli assured them no nudity would be filmed or photographed and he even showed them how the cameras would be positioned to make that so.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Santa Monica Superior Court on Friday, December 30, alleges that Paramount sexually exploited them, distributed nude images of adolescent children without their knowledge, and were dishonest to the actors.
"What they were told and what went on were two different things,” said Tony Marinozzi, who is a business manager for both actors. “They trusted Franco. At 16, as actors, they took his lead that he would not violate that trust they had. Franco was their friend, and frankly, at 16, what do they do? There are no options. There was no #MeToo.”
The complaint states that Hussey and Whiting have suffered "mental anguish and emotional distress" since the film was released 55 years ago and lost out on job opportunities following the release of the film. They are looking to receive damages "believed to be in excess of $500 million."
“Nude images of minors are unlawful and shouldn’t be exhibited,” said the actors’ attorney, Solomon Gresen, in an interview. “These were very young naive children in the ’60s who had no understanding of what was about to hit them. 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.”
This lawsuit was filed close to the December 31 deadline for the California law that temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for older claims of child sexual abuse.
Hussey previously spoke about this matter and said that while the scene was considered "taboo" in America, nudity was much more common in European films at the time."
“It wasn’t that big of a deal,” Hussey said. “And Leonard wasn’t shy at all! In the middle of shooting, I just completely forgot I didn’t have clothes on.”
In 2018, Hussey also said that Zeffirelli "shot [the scene] tastefully" and that it was "needed for the film."
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/former-teen-actors-sue-over-their-nude-scene-in-1968s-romeo-and-juliet