IT’S been three decades since Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes delivered one of the most electric and moving cinematic portrayals of Romeo and Juliet.
The 1996 film, directed by Baz Luhrmann, received a number of accolades, including four BAFTAs and two awards at International film festival.
It also launched the career of , one of Hollywood’s greatest, the actor having given the award-winning performance aged just 21.
Here, reveals the varying fates of the stars, from a cheating pregnancy scandal to onset race rows and scathing criticism of fellow cast mates.
Leonardo DiCaprio – Romeo Montague
He’s now one of the most lauded actors of all time, but Leonardo DiCaprio was just 21 when he starred in Romeo and Juliet.
Although, he admitted at the time that his knowledge of Shakespeare was scarce.
“I can’t say that I was neither here nor there with [Shakespeare]. All I knew was that, just like any other person my age, you hear Shakespeare, and you’re like, ‘oh god, those long-winded plays that you just don’t understand and have no clue about,’” he said in an Access Hollywood interview.
Before the film was even released, Leo had begun filming , which later became one of the highest grossing films of all time.
He has since taken leading role in a number of high profile films, including The Revenant, Inception, Shutter Island and The Wolf of Wallstreet.
He is also a passionate environmentalist, having spoken vocally on issues of climate change and
Aside from his impressive acting achievements, Leo is renowned for his dating history, which has seen him couple up with several models and actresses, some of whom have been many years his junior.
The 51-year-old is currently dating Italian model , who is 28.
His previous girlfriends include Gisele Bündchen, , and, the latter with whom he broke up with just before she turned 25, which heavily fuelled jokes about his dating age cap.
Claire Danes
was just 17 when she starred in Romeo and Juliet, although she was not originally cast to be the leading lady.
was originally billed for the role as she was 13, the same age as Juliet, but directors felt she looked wrong stood opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, who was 21.
“Fox said it looked like Leonardo was molesting me when we kissed,” Portman told the New York Times.
So, Claire, now 47, did a screen test and the rest is history.
“She’s a really mature girl for her age,” Leo said in 1996. “She was the only girl when we did the audition who came straight in my face to do the lines. [They were] not nearly as truthful as Claire’s performance.”
Rumours at the time made out that Claire and Leo did not get on off-screen. However, the Juliet star later said an unspoken “spark” between them was the reason for the tension.
“It was too big for us to really accept,” she said according to Glamour .
However, not long after earning her acting stripes in the production, Claire was hit by a major scandal when she became embroiled in a love triangle with Billy Crudup, and his former partner Mary-Louise Parker.
In 2003, Billy ended his eight year relationship with Mary-Louise, who was seven months pregnant, after meeting Claire, who was dating musician Ben Lee, on the set of Stage Beauty.
Billy and Claire are believed to have had an affair, and only revealed they were dating a few months after Mary-Louise gave birth.
They went on to date for around four years before eventually breaking up.
Ten years after the scandal broke, Claire described the public’s reaction as “a scary thing”, adding that it was “really hard” on her.
“I didn’t know how to not do that. I was just in love with him, and needed to explore that, and I was 24. I didn’t quite know what those consequences would be.”
Thirty years since the film hit screens, Claire is now regarded as a successful actress, having taken on a steady stream of roles on Homeland, Les Misérables, The Hours, The Family Stone and Temple Grandin.
Claire has won a number of awards over the course of her career, including Primetime Emmy Awards for Homeland in 2012, and for My So-Called Life in 1996 and Temple Grandin in 2011.
She has been married to Hugh Dancy since 2009 and they have three children.
John Leguizamo – Tybalt
played Tybalt, Juliet’s hot-headed, aggressive cousin and her fierce protector.
And it turned out John was similarly hot headed in real life, previously saying he couldn’t stand how good his cast mate, Leonardo DiCaprio, was.
“I just hated Leo,” Leguizamo told Heat . “I’d walk in front of the camera, and he would do my line, ‘Thou or I must go!’ all screechy, so then I’d become really self-conscious. It came so easy to that little blond, happy golden boy. He’d smoke a cigarette, do some laps, do a Michael Jackson impersonation, go on the set and there it was.”
Afterwards, the 66-year-old picked up a number of roles, including in the Ice Age films, Spawn, and more recently, The Menu and Christopher Nolan’s
The Colombian-born actor has since made efforts to focus on projects championing Latin and Black people.
As he said in an interview with AVClub , “how can a child see themselves as a hero if he doesn’t see himself? Latin kids are the least represented in children’s picture books, and we’re the largest ethnic group in America.”
He won an Emmy in 1999 for Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Music Program for John Leguizamo: Freak, the Spike Lee-filmed performance of his first one-man show.
John has been married to second wife Justine Maurer since 2003 and they have two children.
Harold Perrineau – Mercutio
Since the movie, has worked on a number of films, including the Matrix franchise, Lost, The Best Man, 28 Weeks Later, ZeroDark Thirty, Claws, The Rookie and Sons of Anarchy.
One of his most notable roles was in the acclaimed series, Lost, in 2002.
However, Harold, 63, claimed recently that he was fired after he asked that his character have “equal depth” with fellow characters.
Harold also said the actors of colour were put in the back row or on the ends during cast photo shoots.
He said he initially joined the cast thinking it would be a “really equitable” script that highlighted all the characters, but soon found himself in disagreement with the writers.
“It became pretty clear that I was the Black guy. Daniel (Dae Kim) was the Asian guy. And then you had Jack and Kate and Sawyer,” he said.
He claimed that he had approached the show’s writers after reading the script and noting that his character, Michael, only asked where his son was once despite, him having gone missing in the story.
“I can’t be another person who doesn’t care about missing Black boys, even in the context of fiction, right? This is just furthering the narrative that nobody cares about Black boys, even Black fathers,” he said, reflecting on how he felt about the script at the time.
In a rewritten script, Michael’s scenes focused on his life before he landed on the island, but Harold felt things had changed with the show and he was told before the season two finale that he would not be returning to film the third season.
However, he did later take on a guest role in season four, which led to his death, and took on a one-episode cameo in the sixth and final season in 2010.
He married Brittany Perrineau in 2002, with whom he shares three daughters together, Aurora, Wynter Aria, and Holiday Grace.
Miriam Margolyes – Nurse
was 55 when she appeared as the nurse in Romeo and Juliet.
In her 2021 memoir, This Much Is True, she shared details of what it was like working on set, claiming that Claire had been infatuated with Leonardo, though the feelings had not been returned.
“It was obvious to all of us that she really was in love with her Romeo, but Leonardo wasn’t in love with her,” wrote Miriam. “She wasn’t his type at all. He didn’t know how to cope with her evident infatuation.”
“He wasn’t sensitive to her feelings, was dismissive of her and could be quite nasty in his keenness to get away, while Claire was utterly sincere and so open. It was painful to watch.”
Elsewhere, Miriam has made a number of shocking comments about her fellow cast mates.
“I thought Leonardo DiCaprio was gay,” Miriam told the Daily Mail . “He wore a dress, and I don’t know, you felt he was looking for comment. I think he likes people talking about him.“
She then continued, “Anyway, he’s not gay. My gaydar was at fault there. He was a very nice guy, a fine actor and a great shopping companion. I liked him a lot.”
However, she was less complimentary about his hygiene, telling This Morning in 2022 that he was “a bit smelly “.
“Because it was very hot in Mexico and I think young boys, he was very young at the time, they don’t make themselves fragrant, they don’t wash all the bits.”
Miriam had already seen great success in her career by the time she landed the role, including winning the BAFTA Best Supporting Actress award in 1993 for The Age of Innocence, and a Sony Radio Award for Best Actress in 1993.
Miriam later went on to add many acting strings to her bow, including in major films like where she played Professor Sprout, Call The Midwife, and Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries.
Paul Rudd – Dave Paris
, 57, played Count Paris, the sweet, well-meaning Governor’s son whom Juliet’s parents intended her to marry.
The actor arguably went on to have one of the most successful careers in Hollywood, taking on roles in several major hits, including This is 40, Clueless, Ant-Man, Anchorman, The 40-year-old Virgin, Knocked Up, Night at the Museum, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Outside of his major film successes, Paul largely stays out of the spotlight and shares little of his private life.
He married Julie Jaeger in 2003 and the couple share two children.
Brian Dennehy – Ted Montague
played Romeo’s dad in the 1996 film.
Although he only had three lines in the whole film, Luhrmann was insistent on having him take on the role.
The director said of Brian, “He’s a terrific stage actor. I just asked him. I said, ‘Look, I really need someone who could really believe he’s Leonardo’s father and someone with real credibility and who has good craft.'”
Brian has earned several impressive awards, including a Golden Globe and a Tony award for Death of a Salesman. He earned a second Tony Award for his performance in Long Day’s Journey into Night.
With hundreds of film, TV and theatre credits to his name, Brian died in April 2020 at the age of 81.
Christina Pickles – Caroline Montague
played Caroline Montague, Romeo’s mother, in the 1996 production.
She is well known for her role as Monica and Ross’s mother in Friends, which she held from 1994 to 2004.
Christina, 91, also had roles in The Family Holiday, George of The Jungle 2, and more recently, Break a Hip, for which she won her first Emmy award in 2018 aged 83.
She has been married to Ian Masters, an Australian-born American journalist, since 2005.
Paul Sorvino – Fulgencio Capulet
played Juliet’s father, Fulgencio Capulet.
He was known for several roles, including Money Talks, Cruising, and Good Fellas, but sadly died in 2022 aged 83.
Paul was renowned for playing tough authority figures, mobsters, and police officers.
Some of his last roles included Godfather of Harlem between 2019 and 2021, and The Birthday Cake in 2021.
His daughter, Mira Sorvino, was one of the many women who accused Harvey Weinstein of inappropriate conduct.
Speaking on his daughter’s experience, Sorvino told TMZ in 2018: “If I had known it, he would not be walking. He’d be in a wheelchair. That son of a b****.”
Diane Venora – Gloria Capulet
Diane Verona played the role of Juliet’s mother Gloria Capulet.
It wasn’t the first time she had taken on a Shakespearean role, having performed in a number of Hamlet productions.
The now 74-year-old had already enjoyed a successful stage career by the time she joined Claire and Leonardo in Romeo and Juliet.
Diane had taken in roles in Heat, The Substitute, Wolfen, and Bird, all before the beginning of the 21st century.
More recently, she has taken on roles in Cherish The Day, and The Victorians.
She shares one daughter with her ex husband Andrzej Bartkowiak.
Pete Postlethwaite – Friar Laurence
Pete Postlethwaite played Friar Laurence in the 1996 production.
Some of his previous major roles include The Usual Suspects, Brassed Off, and The Town.
In 2003, the actor was made an OBE in the New Year’s Honours for his services for drama, an achievement he said shocked him.
He sadly died of pancreatic cancer in 2011, at the age of 64.
He wrote his memoir, A Spectacle of Dust: An Autobiography, which released after his death.
