William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet(1996) Behind the Scenes

Romeo (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Juliet (Claire Danes) express their love. аааааааааааааааааааааа More photos..

Plot
The tragic shakespearean play brought to life in a modernized version of Romeo and Juliet. Two feuding families, the Montagues and Capulets, more like gangsters carrying guns. When Romeo (Leonardo DiCaprio) first meet Juliet (Claire Danes), it's love at first sight but their destiny is doomed for these star-crossed lovers, separated by the hatred between their feuding families.

Baz Luhrmann about his film
"I've always wanted to do Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare's plays touched everyone, from the street sweeper to the Queen of England."

His Choice for Romeo:"I thought Leonardo DiCaprio was an extraordinary young actor that would make a great Romeo. It's important to reveal these eternal characters anew for every generation, and Leonardo is particularly suited for this."

His Choice for Juliet: Actually after casting Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo, DiCaprio was the one to choose his Juliet. The auditions for Juliet included Alicia Silverstone, Natalie Portman but DiCaprio chose Claire Danes because "She was the only girl when we did the audition who came straight in my face to do the lines. She said them looking at me right in the eye. And some of the other girls did, like, the affected flower thing. You know, they stroked their face and looked up and tried to do things with their eyelashes, and it was not nearly as truthful as Claire's performance.". Baz says: "The extraordinary, unmissable characteristic about Claire is that here is a sixteen-year-old with the poise and maturity of a thirty-year-old."

Getting Sick
To describe the cast and crew while filming in mexico in one word: SICK. Yes, Leonardo DiCaprio was sick, the lovely co-star Claire Danes had the flu, her mother who came down to Mexico to be with her was in the hospital with pneumonia. Through the coughing and sneezing of crew members and cast, some days they had to close production for a few days. The causes of this? The water, the pollution, the exhaustion, the headaches, the nosebleeds, and the stomach ailments.

The Capulets seeking revenge. аааааааааааааааааааааа

"The director getting sick. I mean he got really sick. He's already a thin man, Baz is, but when he got sick he got to the point where he was like, ooh, I don't know, like, starting to look like a skeleton and he had to get an IV of Gatorade for the electrolytes into his system 'cause he'd gotten so dehydrated. Everyone got sick all the time. I got sick for a week -- I was extremely sick and Claire did as well."

--Leonardo DiCaprio answer to the question what was the worst thing that happened during the shooting of Romeo and Juliet

"Everybody was sick, We all got hit with Montezuma's revenge. I was camped out over the toilet for a day. I asked my mom, can you die from this? I was dead serious."
--Claire Danes

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