History Trivia / RomeoAndJuliet

* A [[TheGhost ghost character]] named Valentine appears on the Capulet's guest list for the ball; "Mercutio and his brother Valentine". Valentine never appears in the play or is mentioned again. What's the ''one other'' Shakespeare play that also takes place in Verona? ''Theatre/TheTwoGentlemenOfVerona'', in which one of the eponymous gentlemen is named Valentine.

* TropeNamers: SerialRomeo, StarCrossedLovers.

* ActorInspiredElement: Creator/LeslieHoward lobbied to keep his own blond hair in the film, rather than darken it to look convincingly Italian. Upon doing research, MGM discovered that there would have indeed been many blonds during Romeo's time.

* DawsonCasting: The teenaged Romeo was played by Leslie Howard, who was in his forties. Norma Shearer was also in her thirties as Juliet.

* PlayingAgainstType: If you go by on-screen work that is. Damian Lewis is a Shakespearian Actor, but his most famous on-screen roles have been as soldiers, assassins and cops. Here he's Lord Capulet.

** Logan Lerman, Sam Claflin and Josh Hutcherson all auditioned for the role of Romeo.

* ActorInspiredElement: Creator/LeslieHoward lobbied to keep his own blond hair in the film, rather than darken it to [[LatinoIsBrown look convincingly Italian]]. Upon doing research, MGM discovered that there would have indeed been many blonds during Romeo's time.

** William Randolph Hearst heavily campaigned for his mistress Marion Davies to be cast as Juliet. MGM felt she would have been miscast and should stick to comedies.

!!The 1968 Film:
* AwesomeDearBoy: Creator/LaurenceOlivier provided the opening narration, dubbed Antonio Pierfederici's voice and supplied a few background voices free of charge because he was impressed with the director's work for the National Theatre of Great Britain.
* DawsonCasting: Averted and this was the first major film adaptation to cast age-appropriate actors. Leonard Whiting was seventeen playing Romeo, and Olivia Hussey was sixteen playing Juliet. Technically Olivia is a few years older than Juliet in the original text (she's thirteen!) but the film gives her an AgeLift to match Olivia's age.
* DeletedScene:
** According to a souvenir book, the scene where Romeo confronts Paris in Juliet's tomb was either filmed and cut or at least scripted.
** A scene where Romeo reads the guest list for the Capulets' party and discovers that Rosaline will be there was also cut.
** Another cut scene would have been Tybalt's introduction, showing him in bed with a pretty girl, then leaping up and getting dressed to join the street fight.
* DyeingForYourArt: Creator/MichaelYork, a natural blond, darkened his hair to black to play Tybalt.
* {{Jossed}}: It's an urban legend that Olivia Hussey was judged too young to see the movie due to the nudity. Although press reported her as being only fifteen, she set the record straight to say she turned sixteen before the nude scenes were shot. [[RealityEnsues Even if she had been underage, she still could have legally seen the film if a parent or guardian was with her]].
* TheRedStapler: Juliet's RapunzelHair reportedly inspired a great number of girls to grow their hair out long too.
* RomanceOnTheSet: Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting dated briefly, but decided they were BetterAsFriends.
* StarMakingRole:
** Michael York was immediately put on the map with this, leading to his high profile roles in ''{{Theatre/Cabaret}}'' and ''Film/LogansRun''.
** Olivia Hussey plays with this, as she took a couple of years away from acting after the instant success, but still got lots of notable roles afterwards.
** Subverted with Leonard Whiting, who ended his film career in the 70s, to focus on stage work.

** This was planned as a MadeForTVMovie. But when Paramount became involved, the budget increased and it became a theatrical film. Tellingly, this is one of few pre-''Film/StarWars'' theatrical features to not have opening credits.
** Olivia Hussey was initially rejected for looking too young and another actress was cast as Juliet. But before filming, said actress cut her hair and Franco Zeffirelli lost interest in her. At this point [[SheIsAllGrownUp Olivia had become a beautiful teenager]] and won the part on a second reading.
** Anjelica Huston really wanted to play Juliet, but her father turned the part down for her saying she was already committed to one of his films. She was rather annoyed about that.
** Paul [=McCartney=] apparently lobbied hard to play Romeo. As he was twenty-five and Franco Zefferelli was determined to cast teenagers, he was turned down.

!!The 2013 Film:
* DawsonCasting: Averted. Producers had planned to cast a twenty-something actress as Juliet, but fourteen-year-old Hailee Steinfeld played it.
* PlayingAgainstType: If you go by on-screen work that is. Damian Lewis is a Shakespearian Actor, but his most famous on-screen roles have been as soldiers, assassins and cops. Here he's Lord Capulet.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:

* DyeingForYourArt: Michael York, a natural blond, darkened his hair to black to play Tybalt.

* DawsonCasting: Averted and this was the first major film adaptation to cast age-appropriate actors. Leonard Whiting was seventeen playing Romeo, and Olivia Hussey was sixteen playing Juliet.

* {{Jossed}}: It's an urban legend that Olivia Hussey was judged too young to see the movie due to the nudity. She was sixteen or seventeen when it was released, meaning she could legally have watched it. Had she been younger, she still could have if a guardian had been with her. This isn't helped by several newspapers reporting her as being only fifteen as a publicity gimmick.

** This was planned as a MadeForTVMovie. But when Paramount became involved, the budget increased and it became a theatrical film.

* CommonKnowledge: Contrary to common knowledge, Romeo never climbed up to Juliet's balcony to meet her. She wasn't even on a balcony in the first place--balconies didn't really exist in London at the time (so Shakespeare wouldn't have written about one). Instead, Romeo is simply standing outside her window looking up at her.

* BeamMeUpScotty: Contrary to common knowledge, Romeo never climbed up to Juliet's balcony to meet her. She wasn't even on a balcony in the first place--balconies didn't really exist in London at the time (so Shakespeare wouldn't have written about one). Instead, Romeo is simply standing outside her window looking up at her.

* BeamMeUpScotty: Contrary to common knowledge, Romeo never climbed up to Juliet's balcony to meet her. She wasn't even on a balcony in the first place-—balconies didn't really exist in London at the time (so Shakespeare wouldn't have written about one). Instead, Romeo is simply standing outside her window looking up at her.

* PropRecycling: John Barrymore wore the same costume from ''Don Juan''.
* TroubledProduction: It ran six months and the budget bloated to well over $2 million, making it MGM's most expensive movie at the time. John Barrymore was also frequently drunk on the set, despite the studio executives trying to prevent it.

* ActorInspiredElement: Leslie Howard lobbied to keep his own blond hair in the film, rather than darken it to [[LatinoIsBrown look convincingly Italian]]. Upon doing research, MGM discovered that there would have indeed been many blonds during Romeo's time.

** John Gielgud turned down the part of Romeo, and it went to Leslie Howard instead. Robert Donat and Laurence Olivier also turned it down.