LOS ANGELES — The two stars of 1968’s “Romeo and Juliet” sued Paramount Pictures for more than $500 million on Friday over a nude scene in the film shot when they were teens.
Olivia Hussey, then 15 and now 71, and Leonard Whiting, then 16 now 72, filed the suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud.
Director Franco Zeffirelli, who died in 2019, initially told the two that they would wear flesh-colored undergarments in the bedroom scene that comes late in the movie and was shot on the final days of filming, the suit alleges.
But on the morning of the shoot, Zeffirelli told Whiting, who played Romeo, and Hussey, who played Juliet, that they would wear only body makeup, while still assuring them the camera would be positioned in a way that would not show nudity, according to the suit.
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Yet they were filmed in the nude without their knowledge, in violation of California and federal laws against indecency and the exploitation of children, the suit says.
Zeffirelli told them they must act in the nude “or the picture would fail” and their careers would be hurt, the suit said. The actors “believed they had no choice but to act in the nude in body makeup as demanded.”
Whiting’s bare buttocks and Hussey’s bare breasts are briefly shown during the scene.
The film (and its theme song) were major hits at the time, and has been shown to generations of high school students studying the Shakespeare play since.
The court filing says Hussey and Whiting have suffered emotional damage and mental anguish for decades, and that each had careers that did not reflect the success of the movie.
It says given that suffering and the revenue brought in by the film since its release, the actors are entitled to damages of more than $500 million.
USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Paramount Pictures for comment.
The lawsuit was filed under a California law temporarily suspending the statute of limitations for child sex abuse, which has led to a host of new lawsuits and the revival of many others that were previously dismissed. That suspension expired Dec. 31, prompting a wave of last-minute lawsuits.
Hussey previously defended the scene in a 2018 interview with Variety for the film’s 50th anniversary.
“Nobody my age had done that before,” she said, adding that Zeffirelli shot it tastefully. “It was needed for the film.”
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Hussey and Whiting aren’t the only actors who’ve recently scrutinized underage nudity in film.
“Blue Lagoon” co-stars Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins reminisced on their experiences working together on the highly-controversial 1980 film during an episode of Shields’ “Now What?” podcast in December 2022.
“It wouldn’t be allowed,” Shields, who was 14 while filming the movie and is now 57, said. “We were spearing fish and all kinds of crazy things. Children are naked running down a beach.”
Atkins, who was 18 at the time, later added: “There were scenes where I was butt naked with you, if you remember, sliding down that slide and things like that. And that was a little awkward, but it was kind of funny for me because at this point in time I would just do it.”
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