No Ordinary Love Story...

'Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight, For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.'

Romeo

Let me start out by saying as someone who works in field of psychology, I hate those who judge the level of trauma in another.  We all experience things differently, and sometimes brief moments can have a great impact on person, even years or decades late.  That being said, I struggle with the recent news about the lawsuit filed by Romeo and Juliet actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting. 

My struggle isn't with their allegations.  I've read enough stories about director Franco Zeffirelli to know their claims are likely true.  The problem is, the claims themselves. Even in their suit, there is no allegation anyone forced them to take their clothes off, only that the director pleaded with them to do so for the good of the film.  I'm sure his pleading put a lot of pressure on both actors, but their behavior, actions and words do not align with their claims in the suit.  As recently as 2018, Hussey in particular spoke of the nudity not being a big deal. 

'It wasn’t that big of a deal, and Leonard wasn’t shy at all! In the middle of shooting, I just completely forgot I didn’t have clothes on.'

Olivia Hussey, 2018

Now it's possible that Hussey's had a change of heart in the last four years, but I still struggle with the allegation being that of child abuse.  Having worked with many children who've been actually abused, it's hard to find a comparison between what they've been through and what happened to Hussey and Whiting.   Once again, even if their allegations are true, in the end, they made the choice to appear nude on set.  

I know they were young, and nudity in films wasn't as closely regulated as it is today, there still would have been parents or guardians who would have to sign off on anything the actors were required to do.  It would seem whoever in the actors camp signed the consent and contracts would be the one to sue, not the director, even if he lied, or pressured them.  

The issue does not even seem to be that they filmed the scene nude, but instead that it ended up on the screen.  Surely between the filming, the dailies and the previews, the nudity was not a surprise.  Even Zeffirelli was not capable of 'sneaking' in a nude scene directly to theatres that the actors or studio didn't see and approve.

A recent change in California child abuse laws seems more likely the stimulus, and if so, cool.  They're suing for hundreds of millions, which might be a ploy to get a much smaller amount, quietly from the studio, to make this go away.  If so, good for them, but at the same time, bad for all those whose entire lives have been damaged by actual abuse and who don't have the celebrity status or money to file a suit to put public pressure on their abuser.

I wasn't initially going to add caps from the film, but in the end, decided it was important.  The movie was Romeo and Juliet, and the young lovers love story was at the heart of the film.  I think I first saw the movie, and the nudity, when I was a minor, in 8th grade English class.   Although I know most movie nudity is gratuitous, this scene, including the nudity, really did play an important role in the impact of the story and the film.