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ROMEO AND JULIET Stars Sue Studio Over Underage Nude Scene
By Movieguide® Contributor
The stars of 1968’s ROMEO AND JULIET have sued Paramount Pictures for more than $500 million over a nude scene they shot when both were underage.
Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were 15 and 16, respectively, when they shot the now iconic Shakespeare adaptation.
The two actors filed a suit alleging sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and fraud.
Director Franco Zeffirelli, who passed away in 2019, reportedly told the young actors that they would be wearing flesh-colored undergarments for a sex scene. However, when it came time to shoot, Zeffirelli told Hussey and Whiting they would be wearing body makeup.
The director told the pair the camera would be placed in such a way that no nudity would be shown, but Whiting’s bare buttocks and Hussey’s bare breasts can be seen.
Hussey and Whiting were still filmed in the nude without their knowledge, violating California and federal laws against indecency and the exploitation of children.
The actors alleged that Zeffirelli told them they must act in the nude or the movie “would fail” and their careers would suffer.
Hussey and Whiting said they “believed they had no choice but to act in the nude in body makeup as demanded.”
Their suit claims that both actors suffered “emotional damage and mental anguish,” and that their careers were not as successful as the movie itself.
Hussey and Whiting are not the only actors who regret things they were pressured into doing on screen. Movieguide® previously reported on SKINS actress Kaya Scodelario’s experience on the teen show:
Actress Kaya Scodelario recently went viral for her TikTok comparing EUPHORIA to her own TV show SKINS.
SKINS, a British TV show that aired from 2007 to 2013, was infamous for its dark subject matter. The show explored topics like drug abuse, mental health issues, and premarital sex.
EUPHORIA has frequently been compared to the UK show, due to the fact that it covers a lot of the same subjects.
There is one notable difference, though. While the stars of EUPHORIA are all 20-somethings playing high schoolers, the actors on SKINS were actually teenagers. Scodelario was only 14 years old when she started the show.
Her now viral TikTok addresses that. The video features text above the actress’ face that reads, “Watching EUPHORIA for the first time thinking, This is crazy for 17-year-olds, then remembering what I was doing on TV at 14.”
Her caption reads, “Will always be grateful. But yeah safeguarding really wasnt a thing back then….”
While Scodelario said she was grateful for the opportunities the show gave her as an actress, she did admit in a since-deleted comment that SKINS gave her “issues.”
A fan commented, “Do you think being on SKINS affected your mentality at that age?”
The actress replied, “Yes. It was a beautiful time but also the deep rooted cause of a lot of my issues now. Still, it gave me the opportunity to do the job I loved.”
She’s not the only former SKINS star that admitted to feeling traumatized by their time on the show.
April Pearson and Layla Lewis both appeared on SKINS for a few seasons, and on a recent podcast, the actresses discussed how filming the show’s sex scenes impacted them.
“There’s a difference between being officially old enough and mentally old enough,” Pearson explained of the sex scenes. “I was having this conversation with my husband and I was saying I do feel like I was too young, I feel like I wasn’t protected.”
She continued, “The preparation for what we were going to do… Nowadays you have an intimacy co-ordinator as a standard for nude, intimate scenes and that just simply wasn’t a thing.”
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