Stars of 1968 Zeffirelli film Romeo and Juliet sue over teen nude scene

Two stars in 1968 Romeo and Juliet sued Paramount Pictures for more than $500 million on Tuesday over a silent scene in a movie he shot when he was a teenager.

Olivia Hussey, then 15 and now 71, and Leonard Whiting, then 16 now 72, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud.

Director Franco Zeffirelli, who died in 2019, initially told the two that they would wear flesh-colored clothing in the film’s final bedroom scene and that it was shot in the final days of filming, according to the suit.

But on the morning of the shoot, Zeffirelli told Whiting, who played Romeo, and Hussey, who played Juliet, that they were wearing only body makeup, while still ensuring that the camera would be positioned in a way that did not show the nakedness, respectively. to settings.

Instead, she was filmed in silence without her knowledge, in violation of California and US laws against indecency and exploitation of children, according to the suit.

Zeffirelli told him he had to act in silence “or the picture would fail” and his career would be harmed, the suit said. The actors “believed they had no choice but to act naked in their makeup as they wished.”

Whiting’s bare butt and Hussey’s bare chest are briefly shown during the scene.

Seen by generations of high school students

The film, and its theme song, were major hits at the time, and have been shown to generations of high school students learning to play Shakespeare since.

Court filings say Hussey and Whiting have suffered emotional damage and mental anguish for decades, and each had careers that did not reflect the film’s success.

It said that due to the suffering and revenue brought by the film since its release, the actors are entitled to damages of more than 500 million US dollars.

An email seeking comment from a Paramount representative was not immediately returned.

The lawsuit was filed under a California law to suspend the statute of limitations for child sex abuse, which has led to many new lawsuits and revived many others that were previously dismissed.

Hussey defended the scene in a 2018 interview with Variety, which first reported the lawsuit, for the film’s 50th anniversary.

“No one my age has done that,” he said, adding that Zeffirelli shot well. “It’s needed for a movie.”

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Hussey and Whiting did.