The lawsuit comes because the state of California now allows the reporting of cases of child abuse that occurred in the past.
Actress Olivia Hussey, 71, and actor Leonard Whiting, 72, were just 15 and 16 respectively when they starred in the Franco Zeffirelli-directed film Romeo and Juliet. The feature film was released in 1968 with box office success and critics, but it was not without controversy. In a sequence of the film based on a great classic written by William Shakespeare, Hussey and Whiting appeared N- and this raised many blisters in society at the time.
Now, more than 55 years after the premiere of Romeo and Juliet, the actors have decided to file a joint lawsuit in the Santa Monica Superior Court against Paramount Studios for S- exploitation and for distributing images of nu-- minors. What's more, both actors argue that this scene harmed their professional careers and that recording this sequence caused them mental and emotional anguish that still persists.
It's been more than 55 years since the world saw Franco Zeffirelli's controversial Romeo and Juliet sequence, which died in 2019, in which Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting appeared nu--. In its day, the scene was considered "taboo" in the United States and the two protagonists assure that they lost job opportunities as a result of that cinematographic moment.
For this reason, Hussey and Whiting decided to file a joint lawsuit in the Santa Monica Superior Court last Friday, accusing Paramount of S- exploiting them and distributing images of N- adolescent children. In the lawsuit, the protagonists of Romeo and Juliet assure that Zeffirelli promised them at the time that there would be no N- in the film and that they would wear flesh-colored underwear for the controversial scene. However, they claim that the director pressured them during the last days of filming to show their bodies. "If they don't, the movie is going to be a flop," the director told Hussey and Whiting, they have reported.
Likewise, the actors recall in the lawsuit that Franco Zeffirelli taught them before recording that sequence where the cameras would be located to show them that their private parts did not come into view from there and insisted that no image of their bodies would be photographed or published. nu--s. But, in the end, a result that was not the case, and both Hussey and Whiting argue that Zeffirelli was dishonest.
The representative of both interpreters has added in a statement that the young actors trusted Franco. "At 15 and 16, as actors, they took him at his word that he would not violate the trust they had. They felt that Franco was their friend and, frankly, at that age, what could they do? There are no options. There was no #MeToo movement," said Tony Marinozzi.
The two protagonists ask for 500 million euros from Paramount
The two actors denounce that due to what happened on the set and later when the film was released, they suffered mental and emotional anguish, and that this feeling is still alive 55 years after the film's premiere. They also assure that this controversy caused them to lose countless job opportunities. For all this, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting ask Paramount for more than 500 million euros.
This lawsuit comes after the California state court suspended the temporary period when filing complaints of child S- abuse to favor the clarification of cases that occurred in the past.
