[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
A pair totally different generations grew up figuring out about this controversy!
Before Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes and The Cardigans, the Romeo and Juliet each eighth grade literature class needed to watch was the 1968 model directed by Franco Zeffirelli. It was an enormous hit that was nominated for 4 Oscars, and for years it was thought of the movie model of the Shakespeare traditional. It helped that for extra verisimilitude, the Italian filmmaker solid precise teenagers to play the titular star-crossed lovers as a substitute of seasoned adults as one would typically see on stage. It makes the play make much more sense with that context. This would all be fantastic have been it not for that one scene…
As these of you who lived by means of their instructor desperately attempting to fast-forward the traditional VHS tape know, after Romeo and Juliet consummate their marriage, they’re proven in mattress the subsequent morning — nude! And you see for only a second Romeo’s butt and Juliet’s breasts. There’s only a little bit of nudity, however contemplating Leonard Whiting was 16 years outdated on the time and Olivia Hussey was solely 15, it’s fairly sketchy — even for the ’60s.
Photos: Kourtney Kardashian & Travis Barker Had A ‘Romeo & Juliet’ Bach Party!
It seems the actors are nonetheless fairly upset about all of it these years later! In truth, they are saying it was extra than simply filming them nude — they have been tricked! Per a shock report in Variety on Wednesday, Whiting and Hussey, who’re each of their 70s now, filed a lawsuit late final week towards Paramount for sexual exploitation and distributing nude pictures of adolescent youngsters. Yeah.
They declare Zeffirelli (who died in 2019) first informed them they might be sporting flesh-colored underwear to guard their modesty. Then because the scene approached, he begged them to go nude “or the Picture would fail.” However, they declare, he assured them with the angles of the digital camera that their non-public bits wouldn’t be seen. Unfortunately for academics all through the nation, that wasn’t true. As the pair’s enterprise supervisor Tony Marinozzi put it:
“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.”
They complain within the swimsuit how they suffered psychological anguish and emotional misery within the 55 years for the reason that movie embarrassed and betrayed them. They additionally argue they misplaced out on job alternatives as a result of nudity. Attorney Solomon Gresen defined:
“Nude images of minors are unlawful and shouldn’t be exhibited. These were very young naive children in the ’60s who had no understanding of what was about to hit them. All of a sudden they were famous at a level they never expected, and in addition they were violated in a way they didn’t know how to deal with.”
In recompense, they’re demanding from Paramount a quantity “believed to be in excess of $500 million.” A HALF BILLION?! Wow.
Innerestingly, a pair years in the past Hussey appeared to have a distinct view of the scene. She defended it in an interview with Variety in 2018, saying that whereas “nobody my age had done that before,” it was shot tastefully and “it was needed for the film,” explaining:
“It wasn’t that big of a deal. And Leonard wasn’t shy at all! In the middle of shooting, I just completely forgot I didn’t have clothes on.”
What modified? Well, there was a short lived suspension of the statute of limitations for claims of kid sexual abuse in California — which ended on December 31, in order that they received in proper underneath the wire.
What do YOU consider the actors’ lawsuit?