The two actors who played star-crossed lovers in Franco Zeffirelli’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet are filing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the film's distributor, Paramount Pictures.
Despite having been filmed more than fifty years ago, at the center of their lawsuit is the claim that a nude bedroom scene was deceptively filmed. Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, the two actors who were just teens at the time, state that they were told no nudity would be included in the final film. Nudity was included, however, and the film went on to win two Oscars and critical acclaim. The film also grew to be a classic adaptation of William Shakespeare's most popular work, viewed by high schoolers across the nation during the study of Shakespeare.
The allegations made against Paramount and the film's director Zeffirelli, who passed away in 2019, are straightforward and scathing. The actors say that Paramount Pictures “knew or should have known images of plaintiffs’ nude bodies were secretly and unlawfully obtained during the performance.” The lawsuit adds that the company had repackaged “what is essentially pornography.”
At the time of the film's production, Hussey was 16 and Whiting was 17. The pair are now 71 and 72. According to the lawsuit, Zeffirelli had told the teens that they would not have to be nude when the bedroom scene was shot and that they would be wearing skin-colored clothing.
However, on the day of the shooting, the actors shared that Zeffirelli told them that “they must act in the nude or the picture would fail.” However, Zeffirelli allegedly explained to the team that cameras would be set up in such a way that no nudity would be captured for the film. Upon the film's release, the final cut included a shot of Hussey’s bare chest and Whiting's bare buttocks.
Following the accusations made by the two actors, Zeffirelli’s son Giuseppe Zeffirelli shared a statement challenging the claims made in the lawsuit. Giuseppe Zeffirelli shared that his father was an outspoken critic of pornography and that the scene was “as far from pornography as you can imagine.”
Guiseppe Zeffirelli said in his statement, “It is embarrassing to hear that today, 55 years after filming, two elderly actors who owe their notoriety essentially to this film wake up to declare that they have suffered an abuse that has caused them years of anxiety and emotional distress.”
Along with the lawsuit being filed over fifty years after the scene in question was shot, the lawsuit also comes at a pivotal time as it was filed just before California’s Child Victims Act expired. It is under this law that the actors’ claims are built on.
Also known as Assembly Bill 218, The California Child Victims Act is legislation that allows survivors of childhood sex abuse to sue for financial compensation regardless of how long ago the abuse occurred. The law was passed in 2019 and took effect in 2020. This lawsuit is one of many that have been filed in what California attorneys have described as a “flood of lawsuits” before the Act expired. Many of these lawsuits have been filed against the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America.
As part of the lawsuit, Hussey and Whiting explain that they suffered mental anguish and emotional distress during the fifty years after the film was released. Additionally, the actors contend that they lost out on job opportunities because of the controversy caused by the film.
Because of these losses, the pair contend that they are entitled to damages “believed to be in excess of 500 million.”
Although Hussey contends that the film's scene caused her years of mental anguish and distress, in a 2018 Interview with Variety, the actress seems to paint a different picture.
“Nobody my age had done that before,” she said, referring to the nude scene. She adds that Zeffirelli had shot the scene tastefully and that it was “needed for the film.” Also that year in an interview with Fox News, Hussey shared again that at the time, the nudity scene was “taboo” but added that scenes including nudity were common throughout much of Europe during the time. She added, “It wasn't that big of a deal” and that “Leonard was not shy at all in the middle of shooting, I just completely forgot I didn’t have clothes on.”
