More than 54 years after the release of the movie "Romeo and Juliet" from 1968 by the Italian director Franco Zappirelli, and its two stars yesterday (Tuesday) filed a lawsuit in the amount of 500 million dollars against the studio that produced it, claiming that they were sexually exploited during the filming.
According to the lawsuit they filed, 72-year-old Leonard Whiting and 71-year-old Olivia Hussey, who were 16 and 15 years old (respectively) at the time of filming, Paramount Studios also distributed nude images of minors from the film, in which Hussey exposed her breast and Whiting exposed her Sit down, this is contrary to the promise of Zefirelli, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 96 (and was nominated for an Oscar for directing the project), that the film will not show nudity in the final result, because skin-colored clothing was used during the filming.
Whiting and Hassey, in 2018, photo: AP.
Despite this, so claim the two (who won the Golden Globe Award for their roles), Zefirelli allegedly encouraged them, in the last days of the filming of the film, to perform the nude scene in the bedroom with body makeup, otherwise "the film will fail".
In the end, the actors claim, they were photographed naked without their knowledge, after they misinterpreted the position of the camera.
The lawsuit also states that the physical exposure of the two caused them to experience mental anguish and emotional stress in the decades that have passed since the film was released, and that they lost many jobs as a result of their nudity.
"What they were told and what happened in the end are two different things," Whiting and Hassey business manager Tony Marinuzzi said.
"They trusted Zaffirelli. As 16-year-old actors, they trusted him not to violate the trust they had in him. Franco was their friend, and honestly, at 16, what could be done? No options. There was no #MeToo then."
A scene from "Romeo and Juliet":
It is important to note that in the interview that Hassi gave in 2018 to "Variety" magazine on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the release of the film (based on William Shakespeare's legendary play), she said that the nudity scene was "necessary", and that it was a significant moment in the history of American cinema.
"No one my age had done this before," she said.
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