Franco Zeffirelli, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 96, under accusations of harassment by Bruce Robinson , the actor who played the role of Benvolio in the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet , nominated for an Oscar for best director and best film, and winner of two statuettes for cinematography and costumes.
In an interview with the Telegraph, the 77-year-old English actor says that during the filming of Romeo and Juliet, when he was 22, Zeffirelli allegedly molested him : «He came while I was taking a shower, he offered to dry my hair. But soon after I found his tongue down my throat. And then worse", he adds, without however wanting to go into detail. «Zeffirelli was a disgusting person to me. And sadistic towards me."
Robinson also makes a comparison with Harvey Weinstein, the American producer in prison in New York after ending up in the #MeToo storm: «The harassment couch may seem like a cliché but it doesn't come from nowhere. Powerful film directors normally wanted to take actresses to bed, today much less so. But it's really unfair to the actors, who are vulnerable in that situation. As a young man, in my case, it wasn't at all unusual to receive advances from homosexual directors who expected you to play along..."
Recently the famous film based on the work of William Shakespeare was back in the limelight after Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, protagonists of the film aged 16 and 17 at the time, sued Paramount for a nude scene in the bedroom .
(Unioneonline/D)
