The Girl on the Balcony
Olivia Hussey Finds Life after Romeo and Juliet
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- 10,99 €
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- 10,99 €
Publisher Description
The 1960s starlet, immortalized on the silver screen as Juliet, tells her story in this celebrity biography—with a forward by director Franco Zeffirelli.
In 1968, sixteen-year-old Olivia Hussey became one of the most famous faces in the world, immortalized as Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's classic film Romeo & Juliet. For a simple girl from Buenos Aires, Argentina, the role was an opportunity of a lifetime. But for Olivia, the role of movie star wasn't so easy to play.
In this candid memoir, Hussey tells her story from her time as an “It Girl” in swinging 60s London through her three tumultuous marriages—including one with Dean Martin's son, Dino. Over the years, she experienced motherhood, stage-four breast cancer, debilitating agoraphobia, bankruptcy, and ultimately, a journey of self-discovery in India that led her on a path to fulfillment.
Hussey shares intimate memories of the legendary performers she knew, loved, worked with, and battled, including The Beatles, Vanessa Redgrave, Bette Davis, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli, Anthony Perkins, Christopher Reeve, Lawrence Olivier, Ingrid Bergman, and more. Olivia also opens up for the first time about the trauma of being raped by her boyfriend just a year after Romeo & Juliet came out.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this chatty memoir, Argentinian actress Hussey, best known from Romeo & Juliet, describes what happened after she hit the cinematic equivalent of the lottery in 1966. She was just 15 when director Franco Zeffirelli cast her as Juliet in his eagerly awaited film adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy. After long days of shooting in Italy and "magic nights, shot through with stardust," the film premiered in 1968, and the movie's teenage stars "suddenly had two of the most recognizable faces in the world" (16-year-old Leonard Whiting was cast as Romeo). At 20, Hussey married the son of singer Dean Martin, and, for the next four decades, through motherhood and two more marriages, she built a Hollywood career, described in brief anecdotes about famous colleagues from Bette Davis to Laurence Olivier. Hussey credits yogi Swami Muktananda, whom she met in the 1970s, for helping her "feel an ocean of compassion" despite working in an industry that "floats on a vicious undercurrent of slime." Hussey touches on the various problems she's faced with alcohol addiction, agoraphobia, and cancer, and how she came to believe, "We are built to heal." With a light touch, Hussey beautifully sketches the life that followed her memorable turn as "that girl on the balcony."
