In 1996, the Australian Baz Luhrmann succeeds in the crazy bet of transposing Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet in the America of the 1990s, it was the birth of Romeo + Juliet, to (re)discover on Disney+. The story takes place in Verona Beach, an underprivileged and violent neighborhood in the United States, where the Montagues and the Capulets, two wealthy rival families, wage a merciless war. During a big costume party given by the Capulets, the young Roméo Montaigu meets Juliette, the girl of the house promised to Dave Paris. From the first sight, Romeo and Juliet fall madly in love with each other. Quickly, the two lovebirds are forced to hide their common passion, strongly threatened by the terrible conflicts between their respective families. This deeply romantic, baroque and heartbreaking film inscribed the youthful features of Leonardo DiCaprio, 21 years old then, and Claire Danes, from the height of his 16 years, in the pantheon of cinema.
Great actresses passed the casting to embody Juliette
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It is besides another actress who was, at the beginning, to lend her features to Juliette. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Kate Winslet or even Christina Ricci passed the castings to embody Juliette. But it’s Natalie Portman who was chosen first. The young actress, revealed in Leon so what 13 years old, traveled to Sydney to try out with Leonardo DiCaprio. And this is where the production realized a major problem. “Natalie was already a very good actress, but she was a frail little girl and Leonardo was already 21, although his character was supposed to be 18, but the fact that Natalie was so young aged him and everything seemed unhealthy then.“, explained Baz Luhrmann.
“It was not the right timing”
“It was a complicated situation because at the time, I was 13 and Leonardo was 21, which was not appropriate in the eyes of the studio or the director. They felt that Leonardo attacked me as soon as he was kissing me. So we decided, by mutual agreement, that I would not play in this film. It was not the right timing.”, had, for his part, explained Natalie Portman. It is finally the New Zealand director Jane Campion who will breathe the name of Claire Danes to Baz Luhrmann.
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Article written in collaboration with 6Medias
