Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting recently sued Paramount for sexual exploitation and child molestation during the filming of the 1968 film.
Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, the stars of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 adaptation of Romeo & Julietrecently filed a lawsuit in Santa Monica Municipal Court against Paramount alleging the exploitation and distribution of their nude images as legal minors.
Pippo Zeffirelli, the son of the film’s director who died in 2019, expressed skepticism about the timing of the lawsuit in a statement to The protector:
“It is embarrassing to hear that today, 55 years after filming, two elderly actors who owe their fame mainly to this film are waking up and confessing that they have been victims of abuse that has left them with years of fear and emotional discomfort. Worried.”
The director’s son continued to say that the love scene in the film was “far from pornographic” and that his father has consistently spoken out against pornography throughout his film career.
The film itself won two Oscars at the time, and both actors received Golden Globes for their performances.
Hussey and Whiting, who were 15 and 16 years old respectively during the shooting of the film, claim they were misled by the film’s director, who insisted the film would fail if they did not agree to do the sex scenes with real nudity in instead of with the meat. -colored bodysuits they originally planned.
The actors are seeking damages of more than $500 million for the loss of acting opportunities and mental anguish they have experienced in the 55 years since the film was released. In an interview, their lawyer Solomon Gresen said, “Nude photographs of minors are illegal and should not be exhibited.”
Gresen added:
“These were very young, naive kids in the 1960s who didn’t know what to expect. Suddenly they were famous on a level they never expected, and on top of that they were being violated in a way they couldn’t handle.”
The lawsuit was made possible by a new California law that temporarily suspends the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse crimes. The law has also led to more lawsuits from child abuse victims from the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America.
Olivia Hussey reflects on her experience filming Romeo and Juliet 50 years later
Hussey has previously spoken about her experience filming the love scenes for Romeo & Juliet, which briefly exposed her breasts and Whiting’s buttocks.
In 2018, on the film’s 50th anniversary, she shared Variety, “Nobody my age had done that before.” She said she felt Zeffirelli took it tastefully, despite the controversy among some American viewers at the time who treated nudity in films as taboo, unlike their European counterparts.
“Everyone thinks they were so young they probably didn’t realize what they were doing,” Hussey said. “But we were very aware of it. We both came from acting schools and when you work, you take your job very seriously.”