Romeo and Juliet Stars Sue Paramount Pictures Over Sexual Exploitation in 1968 Film

Bettmann/Getty

The stars of 1968's feature film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet are suing Paramount Pictures over the movie's nude scene.

Last Friday, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting filed a lawsuit in Santa Monica Superior Court in Calif., in which they accused the production company of sexual harassment, fraud, sexual abuse and intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to legal documents obtained by PEOPLE.

The lawsuit stems from a scene in the movie that includes nude images of both actors, which were filmed when Hussey and Whiting were 15 and 16 years old, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint alleges that late director Franco Zeffirelli told the actors the film would not include nudity and used flesh-colored clothing for the scene in question — until he allegedly suggested the movie "would fail" unless the stars performed the scene nude while wearing body makeup on the last day of filming.

The complaint states that while Zeffirelli showed the actors where the camera would sit for the scene and told the pair that no nudity would be filmed or released in relation to the movie, they thought "they had no choice but to act in the nude with body makeup as demanded on the last day of filming."

RELATED: Romeo and Juliet's Olivia Hussey Reveals She Was Raped in the Charles Manson Murder Home

In the lawsuit, Hussey and Whiting allege that the director lied and that they were filmed nude without their knowledge.

"What they were told and what went on were two different things," Tony Marinozzi, a business manager for the actors, told Variety in a statement Tuesday. "They trusted Franco. At 16, as actors, they took his lead that he would not violate that trust they had."

Everett

"Franco was their friend, and frankly, at 16, what do they do?" Marinozzi added in a statement to the outlet. "There are no options. There was no #MeToo."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Hussey and Whiting's attorney Solomon Gresen told Variety in an interview Tuesday that the actors "were very young naive children in the '60s who had no understanding of what was about to hit them."

"All of a sudden they were famous at a level they never expected, and in addition they were violated in a way they didn't know how to deal with," Gresen said.

RELATED: Actor Johnathon Schaech: I Was Molested by Director Franco Zeffirelli

The lawsuit states that both Hussey and Whiting have suffered "physical and emotional pain, along with extreme and severe mental anguish and emotional distress" in the decades since the movie's release, as well as "a lifetime of loss of earnings and other employment benefits and job opportunities."

The complaint states that the actors are seeking compensation "believed to be in excess of $500,000,000" to match the amount of money the film has earned since 1968.

According to Variety, the actors' lawsuit relies on a recent California law that temporarily suspended the statute of limitations regarding claims of child sexual abuse that carried a Dec. 31, 2022 deadline.