Franco Zeffirelli was a well-respected Italian stage and film director, producer, production designer, and politician. So when Zeffirelli, in his role as the director of the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet,” allegedly told teenage actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting there would be no nudity shown, they said they believed him.
It turned out not to be true. Hussey’s bare breasts and Whiting’s buttocks were shown in the film, and now, 55 years later, the pair has filed a lawsuit against the film’s production company Paramount Pictures for sexual exploitation and distribution of nude images of minors.
California law temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for older claims of child sexual abuse until the deadline of Dec. 31, 2022, and the lawsuit was filed last Dec. 30 in Santa Monica, seeking damages in excess of $100 million.
The complaint claims Hussey and Whiting have suffered from mental anguish and emotional distress and lost out on job opportunities as a result of the film’s release.
Solomon Gresen, attorney for both Hussey and Whiting, would not discuss specifics of the case, but did say, “We are both satisfied and gratified by the outpouring of love and support received.”
Hussey and Whiting are in their 70s now, but at the time the movie was made, Hussey was 15 and Whiting was 16. Zeffirelli, who died in 2019, is not named in the lawsuit. Initially, Hussey and Whiting were to wear flesh-colored undergarments for the bedroom scene, but Zeffirelli reportedly told them the movie “would fail” if they didn’t shoot the scene in the nude.
The Shakespeare adaptation was nominated for four Academy Awards, and won Oscars in the categories of Best Costume and Best Cinematography. The film, which had a budget of less than $1 million, made $38 million with its 1968 release.
Hussey later worked with Zeffirelli again, playing the role of the Virgin Mary in the 1977 television miniseries “Jesus of Nazareth.”
There have been subsequent film remakes of “Romeo and Juliet,” including the 1996 version starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, and another in 2013. Neither of them involved nudity in the bedroom scene.
Hussey explained in a 2018 interview with Variety Magazine the nude scene in the 1968 version “was needed for the film.” But in a statement released on Jan. 24 through Tony Marinozzi, manager for both Hussey and Whiting, Hussey said, “It was abuse disguised as art.”
“They are committed to transparency and seeing this through,” Marinozzi said, “even though the subject matter is traumatic and painful.”
Zeffirelli also directed the 1981 film “Endless Love” starring Brooke Shields, who said in an upcoming Hulu docuseries “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields” that she did not feel “safe” with Zeffirelli as the director, reported Deadline.
“The physicality and the exploration of sexuality felt really dangerous to me, and I didn’t trust the director to create a safe environment for me,” said Shields, who was 16 when “Endless Love” was filmed.
Regarding the lawsuit filed by Hussey and Whiting, Shields told Deadline: “It doesn’t surprise me. It was a very different era in filmmaking and many different directors took liberties. They’d tell the actors one thing, and then tell the studio another. They were in charge and they were the star really.”
Criterion Collection has since purchased the rights to “Romeo and Juliet” from Paramount and has a planned release for Feb. 14.
