How the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ lawsuit could force Hollywood to reckon with its history of child abuse

The 1968 movie “Romeo and Juliet” has come back into public consciousness as stars Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting filed a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures.

In the 1960s, 15-year-old Olivia Hussey and 16-year-old Leonard Whiting secured career-making roles in a film that retells the iconic love story of “Romeo and Juliet,” the first film to use actors that were similar in age to the characters in the play.

These young actors went on to beautifully depict the Shakespearean classic, but their performance became overshadowed by controversy. They were legally children when they were filmed in the nude together; the performance can now be found on sites meant for pornography.

Fifty-five years later, Hussey, now 71, and Whiting, now 72, are suing Paramount Pictures for child abuse. They claim that “Romeo and Juliet” director Franco Zefirelli assured the actors that they would be wearing flesh colored garments and would not be physically nude in the scene.

This allegedly changed in the last days of filming when Zefirelli asked the actors to do the scene fully nude with makeup, according to the lawsuit. Even then, they were told that the positioning of the camera would not capture the full extent of their nudity, which was later revealed to be false.

Hussey and Whiting’s experience is not the only time that the industry took advantage of young stars in the last half century. From the age of New Hollywood to modern day child stars, here are six former child stars who lost their youth while working in the entertainment industry.

Before Hussey and Whiting, there was Judy Garland.

Garland scored a contract with MGM in 1935, simultaneously securing her status as a household name and beginning the end of her career. According to Express UK, Garland was forced to take barbiturates and other drugs and live on a death-defying diet while working with the studio.

In Paul Donnelley’s 2007 biography on Garland, he quotes actress Lauren Bacall as saying, “From childhood Judy was placed on drugs — to lose weight or to go to sleep or to wake up.” By the time she booked the role of Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” at the age of 16, Garland was addicted.

While maintaining a “girl-next-door” image, Garland wrote in an unpublished autobiography that she was constantly molested behind the scenes by older men, including Louis B. Mayer, the producer and cofounder of MGM.

Mayer allegedly had people spy on Garland to ensure that she stuck to her diet of cigarettes, coffee, and chicken soup. In addition to this regimen, her breasts were bound by tape and she wore a special corset to flatten out her curves while filming to keep her looking “innocent.”

Garland died at the age of 47 of an accidental barbiturate overdose. According to the Daily Mail, Garland intended to write a memoir detailing her experience as a child star with MGM, but she was never able to dedicate the time she needed to finish it.

Mickey Rooney suffered under the same MGM umbrella as Judy Garland.

Mickey Rooney was a good friend of Garland’s. He made his big break as Andy Hardy at 16 years old in the MGM film “A Family Affair.” After the success of the film, the studio went on to make 15 more — 14 of which were made within the span of a decade.

This meant a new and heavier workload for Rooney. MGM would often film new movies back-to-back, only separating them by as little as a few days and sometimes hours.

Some of the younger talent, including Rooney, were reportedly given pills and even adrenaline shots to keep them awake and working, according to Express UK. According to Garland, they’d also be given sleeping pills to knock them out when they couldn’t sleep.

“They’d take us to the studio hospital and knock us out with sleeping pills — Mickey sprawled out on one bed and me on another,” Garland was quoted as saying in Paul Donnelley’ biography of her. “Then after four hours they’d wake us up and give us the pep pills again so we could work 72 hours in a row.”

But the industry practice of drugging children didn’t stop there. Hayden Panettiere said she was given “happy pills” to keep her energy up before interviews and red carpets.

Panettiere started doing commercials at just 11 months old. She was cast on the soap opera, “One Life to Live,” at 4 years old and got her big break seven years later in “Remember the Titans.” She has since opened up about the toll growing up in the industry has taken on her.

“Being a child actor is — it’s horrible. I would never wish it on my worst enemy,” Panettiere told People last July.

Panettiere recounts that at the age of 13, she was served alcohol without having to ask for it. She also said she was given “happy pills” by someone in her inner circle when she was 15 years old. Though she admits that she was not very knowledgeable about drugs, she now believes that the pills were “a form of Adderall.”

“I know that when I was given one and I was sent down a red carpet, I was lively and totally down to answer the questions and a chatterbox,” Panettiere said in an interview with ABC News.

She said she didn’t realize it at the time, but this would open her up to a cycle of “self-destruction” that led her to an addiction to drugs and alcohol.

Alyson Stoner was made to act out a rape scene when she was only 6 years old.

Stoner got her start as a co-host for Disney Channel’s “Mike’s Super Short Show.” From there, she went on to star in music videos for Missy Elliot and blockbusters like “Cheaper by the Dozen” and “Step Up.”

In a People op-ed, the actress detailed an audition experience where she had to act out a rape scene.

“At 6 years old, I enter a sterile white room where a stranger stands apathetically behind a camcorder on a tripod. On cue, I perform the scene. This morning, I’m being kidnapped and raped,” Stoner wrote.

In the op-ed, she continued breaking down her thought process after the audition.

“To clarify, I’ll be paid to recreate kidnapping and rape repeatedly on set with a crew of more strangers. If I’m especially believable, I may even get an Oscar and the praise of America,” Stoner wrote.

The actress also talked about how she developed eating disorders — among other health problems — due to stress and a busy work schedule that caused her to skip meals.

“Adding to this, zero productions acknowledge that after their shoot, I will go to another, record an interview during my lunch break, train for multiple hours, skip dinner, and meet for a late-night rehearsal,” Stoner wrote.

Raven-Symoné said she was body-shamed on the set of “The Cosby Show.”

Symoné started acting at the age of 4 on “The Cosby Show.” It was during her time on the show that she would first be introduced to the cruel nature of the industry.

In a 2015 episode of “The View,” the actress recalled a time where she was body-shamed on set as a child.

“I remember not being able to have the bagel or anything at — we would call it crafty, where it’s just a table of food, ready for you to eat whatever you want. And I remember people would be like, ‘You can’t eat that. You’re getting fat!’ I’m like, ‘I’m 7! I’m hungry!'” Symoné said during the episode.

Symoné has also spoken out about how being body shamed so young caused a lot of mental issues for her. She even went as far as to say that she wishes she grew up in a more body-positive time, like today.

Alexa Nikolas said she was emotionally abused by “Zoey 101” creator Dan Schneider.

Nikolas started acting when she was just 7 years old, but her breakout role was on Nickelodeon’s “Zoey 101” as Nicole Bristow. Since then, Nikolas has been vocal about her traumatic experience working on the show.

The actress has spoken openly in interviews about mistreatment by creator Dan Schneider, alleging that he used to be present for all of her wardrobe fittings and would ask for Polaroids taken of the outfits. She also alleges that while she worked for Nickelodeon, Schneider used to “go around with money and ask to take photos of kids’ feet.”

On a podcast with Christy Carlson Romano in November, Nikolas recalled some instances where she was bullied by other cast members and emotionally abused by executives.

“I started crying and I said, ‘I really don’t want to be a problem for anybody and I don’t want anyone to not like me,’ and Dan was like ‘No one likes you.’ You know. He just screamed it,” said Nikolas.

She also claimed no one in production cared about her mental health while she was working with “Zoey 101.”

“I know people are going to focus on Dan Schneider, but really the accountability lies with Nickelodeon,” Nikolas said.

While Schneider has not made a public statement about Nikolas’ allegations, he left Nickelodeon in 2018 following an internal investigation that found that he was “verbally abusive” with coworkers. The investigation found no evidence of sexual misconduct.

Since her time with Nickelodeon, Nikolas has started an organization called Eat Predators that focuses on making the music industry safe for women.