To say that Hollywood has a long history of sexual abuse, harassment and exploitation is an understatement. A USA Today survey in 2018 found that 94 percent of women allege that they experienced a form of sexual harassment throughout their careers in Hollywood. And, 21 percent of the respondents reported being forced to complete a sexual act at least once in their careers.
Now, two actors have come forward and filed a lawsuit against the studio that produced their film over 50 years ago. The director, they allege, filmed them nude when they were minors without their knowledge.
Actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were 15 and 16 years old when they filmed “Romeo and Juliet,” which came out in 1968 and was directed by Franco Zeffirelli. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and won two for cinematography and costume design.
Late last week, Hussey and Whiting, who are now in their 70s, filed a lawsuit accusing Paramount of sexually exploiting them and distributing nude images of them as adolescents (via Variety):
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.”
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.”
Previously, in 2018, Hussey defended the nude scene in the film in an interview with Variety, saying it was “needed” for the film. And, in a Fox News interview that same year, Hussey said that “a lot of films” in Europe had nudity, though it was “taboo” in America.
According to BBC, the lawsuit was filed on Friday in Santa Monica Superior Court under a California law that temporarily suspended the statute of limitations. It had led to a “host of new lawsuits and the revival of many others that were previously dismissed.”
“Nude images of minors are unlawful and shouldn’t be exhibited,” the actors’ attorney, Solomon Gresen, said in an interview with Variety. “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.”