The two actors who played the famous lovers Romeo and Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy have filed a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures over a non-consensual nudity scene taken when they were minors, their law firm announced Tuesday. attorney.
Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, who were 15 and 16 respectively at the time of filming, each received a Golden Globe for their performance in this film.
Now in their seventies, the two actors filed a complaint last week in Santa Monica, California: they accuse the Paramount studio, which produced the film, of having sexually exploited them when they were still minors, by broadcasting an intimate scene that reveals their nudity. buttocks and breasts.
“Sexual exploitation of minors”
According to this complaint, consulted by AFP, the Italian director Franco Zeffirelli – who died in 2019 – strongly insisted that they film this scene, otherwise “the film would fail”, when it was originally supposed to be made with flesh-colored underwear.
The complaint accuses those responsible for the film “of having been dishonest and of having secretly filmed naked or semi-naked minors without their consent, in violation of the laws (…) that regulate indecency and sexual exploitation of minors.”
According to the document, the two actors suffered from anxieties and emotional distress in the more than five decades after the film. They are claiming compensation of several hundred million dollars.
Images that “must be removed”
According to his lawyer Solomon Gresen, the damage suffered has continued over the years, especially with the release of a new version of the film.
The Paramount studio “has images of naked minors that they know should be removed from the film,” he told AFP. “Sexual images of children are serious and should not be tolerated.”
Contacted by AFP, Paramount did not immediately respond for comment on this allegation.
The trade magazine Variety noted that Olivia Hussey had defended the offending scene in her columns during an interview in 2018. At the time, she believed Franco Zeffirelli had filmed it appropriately. “It was necessary for the movie,” she said at the time.
Source: BFM TV
