1968's Romeo and Juliet Actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting Are Filing a Lawsuit Against
Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting's lives modified once they co-starred in 'Romeo and Juliet' in 1968. Here's the place they are now and main points on their child abuse lawsuit against Paramount.
Content warning: This article contains mentions of alleged sexual exploitation of minors.
Nearly four hundred years after William Shakespeare presumably wrote Romeo and Juliet, Paramount created a film adaptation of the creator’s fashionable play starring teen actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting. Olivia and Leonard have been on the brink of getting their careers began once they booked their leading roles. When Romeo and Juliet debuted in theaters in October 1968, the movie catapulted the actors’ luck.
Romeo and Juliet scored 4 Academy Award nominations and lead the way for different movie adaptations like the 1996 movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.
As time has handed, even though, the actors at the back of the famous characters have spoken out about the alleged abuse they persisted whilst filming Romeo and Juliet. See the place the actors are now and why they sued Paramount.
Where are ‘Romeo and Juliet’ actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting now?
After Romeo and Juliet, Olivia and Leonard continued acting in films throughout the 1970s. Olivia’s classics included All the Right Noises, Summertime Killer, and Black Christmas. Leonard also shined on the small screen in TV motion pictures like Frankenstein: The True Story and Smike! They proceeded with operating during the ‘80s, ‘90s, and 2000s, although they by no means completed the similar field place of job good fortune as Romeo and Juliet.
Leonard and Olivia teamed up again in 2015, almost five a long time after Romeo and Juliet’s release. The actors appeared in Social Suicide, a thriller loosely based on Romeo and Juliet, as Julia’s (India Eisley) folks.
Social Suicide is the ultimate position IMDb listed for each Olivia and Leonard, and they don’t seem to be running on any appearing alternatives at the moment. Leonard also helps to keep his personal life non-public, as we couldn’t to find a social media deal with for the British actor.
As for Olivia, she frequently updates her lovers on Instagram. On her account, she ceaselessly shows her activism work and circle of relatives life, with some Romeo and Juliet BTS moments sprinkled in between.
Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting filed a lawsuit against Paramount on child abuse claims.
Throughout the years, Olivia and Leonard have praised their work on Romeo and Juliet and its director, Franco Zeffirelli. But nearly 4 years after Franco’s demise, the lead actors filed a lawsuit with Santa Monica Superior Court to sue Paramount, the studio that aired the film.
According to a lawsuit bought by way of Variety, Olivia and Leonard’s December 2022 lawsuit accused Paramount’s workforce of “sexually exploiting them and distributing nude pictures of adolescent children.”
The actors claimed Franco assured them they wouldn’t be utterly nude right through the filming process. However, when it got here time to shoot the scene, Franco demanded Olivia and Leonard, who had been 15 and 16 at the time, “carry out in the nude with frame make-up,” and warned them that “the Picture would fail” if they did not.
Olivia and Leonard agreed to Franco’s demand underneath the influence that the film wouldn’t include any in their nude scenes. When they noticed the scenes for the primary time, the actors mentioned the director betrayed them.
“What they were informed and what went on had been two different things,” Olivia and Leonard’s industry supervisor, Tony Marinozzi, said. “They trusted Franco. At 16, as actors, they took his lead that he would now not violate that believe they had. Franco was once their buddy, and frankly, at 16, what do they do? There are no choices. There was once no #MeToo.”
The former co-stars are reportedly searching for $500 million in damages. According to Leonard and Olivia’s grievance, they suffered personally and financially from their previous roles. In addition to the “ mental anguish and emotional misery” they allegedly persevered, they consider the film stifled their careers a long time later.
Report on-line or in-person sexual abuse of a child or teenager by means of calling the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 or visiting childhelp.org. Learn extra in regards to the warning signs of child abuse at RAINN.org.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pbXSramam6Ses7p6wqikaKhfp7yusc5mmKecXZ%2FCrbXErWRqcWZteqKv06iprGWepMQ%3D