Those who pick “no” have no idea what happened. I do and I think I may have been responsible for this suit by speaking out about it on a fan site frequented by Leonard Whiting’s wife.

As a person who loved the movie when I was a elementary school student, I wanted to rewatch it so last year when it was available for a month on Amazon, I watched it over and over again. I thought it really was as good as I remembered. I wanted to know all about the making of it, the history of the participants, what happened to everyone. I started watching interviews, out takes, videos of the training and reading articles and biographies. I joined fan sites to talk about the film and get other opinions. In other words, I went down the R&J rabbit hole.

What I found out about Franco Zeffirelli was pretty horrible. He was a right wing politician, a Catholic apologist who said he was molested by a priest when he was a child and it did him no harm. He was sexist, racist, antisemitic. He was accused by the actor who played Benvolio (Bruce Robinson) of doing a Harvey Weinstein on him. Another male actor on a later film accused him of rape. Toward the end of his life, he came out as a homosexual, adopted the two men who were living with him who took care of him like a father (who they slept with) and they inherited his estate.

All that is not the entire story. These two children (15 and 16) were picked out of a lineup based on looks and groomed to do what he wanted them to do. Whiting’s cockney and Hussey’s South American accents were eradicated. He was given total control of them so he let them smoke, drink and run wild as long as they performed. Hussey was bullied to lose weight and be strapped into a corset so tight she couldn’t breathe. The purpose of the corset was to push up her breasts to make them more camera worthy. Zeffirelli often called her Boobs OMina on the set and said she was going to make the film a money maker.

Zeffirelli picked very handsome young men and put them in tight clothes with prominent codpieces. He had them engage in dangerous stunts like real sword fights on gravel and dirt in slippers. The nude Romeo scene has a very different and exploitative feel, as well as the whole production, when seen through the lens of Zeffirelli’s history.

Finally, vulnerable children don’t know they are being groomed and don’t understand the injury and harm they suffered. Narcissistic abuse is especially hard to understand because of gaslighting.

This is one of those I'm not sure what to think. Were they exploited as underage persons? Yes. Neither was sexually abused - physically touched. The person responsible is dead; Zepherelli (sp) got them to act in the nude after lying to them. So, who pays them. The film was shot in Europe, should the laws there apply? IDK.