Actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were just teenagers when they starred in the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Although the film was a hit and bagged four Academy Awards nominations, it courted controversy over a bedroom scene that featured glimpses of Hussey's bare breasts and Whiting's buttocks.
The lead actors, who are now in their 70s, filed a lawsuit against Paramount in Santa Monica Superior Court on 30 December, accusing the studio of sexually exploiting them and disseminating nude pictures of adolescent children, as per a report by Variety.
In continuation of the Variety report, the suit filed by Hussey and Whiting alleges that Zeffirelli, who passed away in 2019, assured both the actors that there would be no nudity in the film and that they would wear flesh-colored undergarments while shooting the bedroom scene. However, in the final days of filming, the director allegedly implored them to perform the scene naked with body makeup, "or the picture would fail."
At the time, Hussey was 15 and Whiting was 16. As per the complaint, Zeffirelli showed them where the camera would be placed and reassured them that no nudity would be captured on camera or shown in the movie. The suit alleges that the late director was dishonest and that the lead actors were in fact filmed naked without their knowledge.
Tony Marinozzi, the business manager of Hussey and Whiting, told Variety, "What they were told and what went on were two different things. 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."
As per the complaint, Hussey and Whiting are seeking damages "believed to be in excess of $500 million."
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