'Romeo and Juliet' Stars Hit Paramount With Child Exploitation Lawsuit

Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting are suing the studio over a nude scene from the 1968 'Romeo and Juliet' film.

Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, the former teen actors who starred in the 1968 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, are now suing Paramount over a nude scene from the film, accusing the studio of sexually exploiting them and distributing nude images of adolescent children. 

According to the lawsuit obtained by Variety, Hussey and Whiting—who were 15 and 16 at the time, respectively—allege that they were filmed nude without their knowledge for the famous bedroom scene that show's Hussey's bare breasts and Whiting's buttocks. 

The actors, who are now in their 70s, claim that director Franco Zeffirelli assured them there would be no nudity in the film, and that they would wear flesh-colored undergarments for the bedroom scene. However, they are now accusing Zeffirelli of pressuring them to perform in the nude with just body makeup in the final days of filming, allegedly telling them that "the Picture would fail," if they didn't comply. 

Hussey and Whiting allege that they were shown where the cameras would be positioned and that Zeffirelli insisted that no nudity would be photographed or released in the film, though they were ultimately filmed without their knowledge, according to the legal docs. 

"What they were told and what went on were two different things," Tony Marinozzi, a business manager for both the actors, stated, according to the outlet. "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." 

As a result of the alleged exploitation, Hussey and Whiting claim to have suffered emotional stress and lost out on other job opportunities. They are seeking damages "believed to be in excess of $500 million," Variety reports. 

“Nude images of minors are unlawful and shouldn’t be exhibited,” the actors’ attorney, Solomon Gresen, said in an interview, per the publication. “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.”

Zeffirelli, the renowned Italian director, died at age 96 in his home in Rome in 2019.

The film, which was nominated for four Academy Awards at the time, was released over 55 years ago. Hussey and Whiting were only able to file a lawsuit as the result of a California law that temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for older claims of child abuse.