Love scene with Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting. Very brief shot of Olivia's nude breasts as she rolls over in bed. | |
Time: 1:30:55-1:34:14 (3m 19s)
Behind the scenes
Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting filed a lawsuit in Santa Monica Superior Court on Friday, accusing Paramount of sexually exploiting them and distributing nude images of adolescent children.
Hussey was 15 at the time and Whiting was 16. According to the complaint, Zeffirelli showed them where the camera would be positioned, and assured them that no nudity would be photographed or released in the film. The suit alleges that he was being dishonest and that Whiting and Hussey were in fact filmed nude without their knowledge.
“What they were told and what went on were two different things,” said Tony Marinozzi, who is a business manager for both actors. “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.”
According to the complaint, Hussey and Whiting have suffered mental anguish and emotional distress in the 55 years since the film’s release, and have also lost out on job opportunities. Despite their breakout performances, Hussey and Whiting had only very limited acting careers after “Romeo and Juliet.”
They are seeking damages “believed to be in excess of $500 million.”
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/romeo-and-juliet-child-abuse-nude-scene-lawsuit-1235477837/
January 5, 2023
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The suit alleges that Zeffirelli — who died in 2019 — assured both actors that there would be no nudity in the film, and that they would wear flesh-colored undergarments in the bedroom scene. But in the final days of filming, the director allegedly implored them to perform in the nude with body makeup, “or the Picture would fail.”
Olivia Hussey, talking about her nude scene:
Well at the time, I don't think anybody this young in English cinema had ever done anything like that. But it was done so tastefully that it really, you know, I mean—Franco shot it towards the very end of the film, so obviously we'd been working together for months on end. We all knew each other. And when the bedroom scene actually came around, you know, he sent Mauro, the makeup gentleman, to come up to my dressing room—and he said, "Franco wants you made up from head to toe. And I said, "But why? I'm going to have a long nightgown on." And he said, "Wwelll, that's what Franco—", and I said, "Well, okay." But I went down and I said, "Franco, I've got to at least have the underwear on," and then he'd say, "You know, it's their first night of love, and they're young: nothing will be inappropriate. It will be done in the best of taste." And once he'd explained how beautiful and how touching—the beauty of it, it was that they were so inexperienced and so young, right?—that it made sense. So then, it wasn't that difficult. And then the grips at that time, all the men in the crew, you know, got to know us all, and we were the youngest people on the set. So when we did the bedroom scene, a lot of the men, when they didn't have to, you know, be lighting something, they'd stand there with their backs to us. So they didn't have to watch what was going on in the shooting, which I thought was very respectful and nice. At the time, you get caught up in the role. I don't know what the big deal was all about anyway.
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United Kingdom 
Italy
SENSITIVE CONTENT
awakening 
dressing 
kissing 
walking