Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were just teenagers when they electrified audiences in the 1968 version of “Romeo and Juliet,” directed by Franco Zeffirelli. The film was a hit and was nominated for four Academy Awards, but it also caused controversy over a bedroom scene that included images of Whiting’s buttocks and Hussey’s bare breasts.
Now in their 70s, Hussey and Whiting filed a lawsuit Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, accusing Paramount of sexually exploiting and distributing nude images of teenage children.
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 scenes. But in the final days of filming, the director reportedly asked them to perform nude with body makeup, “otherwise the film will fail.”
Hussey was 15 at the time and Whiting was 16. According to the complaint, Zeffirelli showed them where the cameras would be placed and assured them that no nudity would be photographed or released on film. The lawsuit alleges that he was dishonest and that Whiting and Hussey were filmed nude without their knowledge.
The complaint states that Hussey and Whiting have suffered mental and emotional pain since the release of the film 55 years ago and have also lost employment opportunities. Despite their breakout performances, Hussey and Whiting had very limited acting careers after “Romeo and Juliet.”
They are seeking damages “believed to exceed $500 million.”
“Nude images of minors are illegal and should not be displayed,” the actor’s lawyer, Solomon Grayson, said in an interview. “These were young naive kids from the ’60s who had no idea what they were getting into. All of a sudden they became famous on the level they thought they would be, and in addition they were violated in a way they didn’t know how to deal with.
The case hinges on a California law that temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for older claims of child sexual abuse. The courts saw an influx of complaints against the Boy Scouts of America and the Catholic Church, among other organizations, in the days leading up to the Dec. 31 deadline.
Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In an interview with Variety in 2018, Hussey defended the nudity scene.
“Nobody my age had done it before,” she said, adding that Zeffirelli shot it off with relish. “It was necessary for the film.”
In another 2018 interview with Fox News, she said that the scene was “taboo” in America, but that nudity was common in European films at the time.
“It wasn’t a big deal,” she said. “And Leonard wasn’t shy at all! In the middle of the shoot, I forgot I wasn’t wearing clothes.