Summary
Olivia Hussey, best known for playing Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, has died at 73.
Hussey passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by loved ones. Cast at age 15, she earned a Golden Globe for her role in the Oscar-winning film.
Later in life, she and co-star Leonard Whiting sued Paramount over alleged abuse during nude scenes, but the case was dismissed in 2023.
Born in Argentina, Hussey also starred in Jesus of Nazareth and Death on the Nile. She is survived by her family.
The actors did not consent. That’s the most important aspect of this and not a single sentence of your comment acknowledges the actual problem or the human beings that were impacted to create this.
The sentense that acknowledges it is the one about Zeffirelli.
I agree artist should not be allowed to force actors into things they don’t consent to. I also think scenes like the one in R&J should be allowed in movies.
Maybe I wasn’t clear that the initial problem came from the actors being minors. The scene would have been fine if they had been capable of consent. It’s fucked that Zeffirelli tricked them, even more so because we recognize now they couldn’t have knowingly consented to begin with. It’s similar to the backlash from the movie Cuties. I personally loved the message behind it and appreciated as an adult woman some of the struggles I dealt with at that age represented, but casting children for those roles was not ok.
I’ll add that while we didn’t have the same legal system when R&J was filmed, I apply my moral standards regardless. The same harm occurred whether it was legal or not.