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Shakespeare & Beyond

Excerpt - The Girl on the Balcony by Olivia Hussey

Girl on the Balcony - Olivia Hussey as Juliet
Girl on the Balcony - Olivia Hussey as Juliet

Girl on the Balcony - Olivia Hussey as JulietOlivia Hussey was just fifteen when Franco Zeffirelli cast her in Romeo and Juliet. When the film was released in October 1968, it catapulted Hussey and Leonard Whiting, the young actor playing Romeo, to global stardom.

For many Shakespeare lovers, Zeffirelli’s film is still the definitive film adaptation of the play. Fifty years after the movie’s release, Hussey’s memoir, The Girl on the Balcony: Olivia Hussey Finds Life After Romeo and Juliet, tells the story of the actress’s life before, during, and after Romeo and Juliet. The excerpt below is from the chapter “Romeo and Juliet Go to the Movies.”