MovieChat Forums > Romeo & Juliet Discussion > Should Hailee Steinfeld have gotten nake...

Should Hailee Steinfeld have gotten naked?

posted 3 years ago by jk90us (7143)
5 replies | jump to latest

As stated elsewhere on here, controversy erupted after Hailee Steinfeld was cast at the age of 14 thanks the cast of The View freaking out when a scene in the script featuring her character Juliet nude was leaked. The writer was all for letting her do it naked (and several fans of the play reportedly agreed with him), but the director dropped the scene after the backlash.

So my question is do you think she should have done it naked if she chose to? Hailee was 15 when she filmed it. Olivia Hussey had just turned 16 when she filmed her topless scene in the 1968 version and no one panicked. It's also still shown on TCM and it's available on Blu-Ray.

14-year old Nastassja Kinski was full frontal nude in To The Devil A Daughter in 1976. So was Brooke Shields a11 or 12 in Pretty Baby. Both are still shown today and sold on disk without any controversy.

So what was the big deal about Steinfeld doing it?

[–] acidraindrop (3055) 3 years ago

"Should" is a strong word.
But I don't think that it was/is a big deal. If all the parties involved (which includes both Steinfeld and her guardians) were okay with it, then so be it.

Society has just gotten a bit touchier about this sort of thing, the justification of which is an entirely different conversation.

I mean, lol your examples aside, there's even the old film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet from the 60s that I saw back in high school. Both titular actors were only 17 as I recall. Thora Birch in American Beauty was 16/17 if I'm not mistaken, although with how crazy her father turned out...maybe there is good reason to consider that parental approval isn't sufficient to reinforce the actor's consent lols.

[–] jk90us (7143) 3 years ago

The 60s version is what I mentioned. Actress was 16.

Birch was 17 in AB. Forgot about that one.

Also, Kiera Knightly was only 16 when she went topless in the film The Hole.

[–] acidraindrop (3055) 3 years ago

lmao dunno how i missed reading your first example.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

Yes, as long as she and her parents were okay with it.

[–] fc31 (5369) 3 years ago

Depending on the scene, whether it was purposely titillating and erotic in nature. If not then I don't think it is a big deal.

The sort of nudity like in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" or "Blame it on Rio" I think is OK.