Remembering ‘Romeo + Juliet’: When Baz Luhrmann Put Leo in an Hawaiian Shirt

Thirty years ago, Baz Luhrmann gave Shakespeare guns, Hawaiian shirts and a killer soundtrack — and turned Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes into movie stars. Coming off his 1992 debut, Strictly Ballroom, Luhrmann delivered a modern Romeo + Juliet, with the Bard’s dialogue transplanted to present-day Verona Beach, where the Montagues and Capulets were rival, gun-toting dynasties.

Luhrmann spotted a magazine photo of 19-year-old DiCaprio, then an Oscar nominee for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, and saw his Romeo. DiCaprio and his father paid their own way to Australia, where the actor spent two weeks workshopping with Luhrmann. Juliet was trickier. Natalie Portman was initially cast but at 13 looked uncomfortably young opposite DiCaprio. “[The studio] Fox said it looked like Leonardo DiCaprio was molesting me when we kissed,” Portman later recalled. Luhrmann eventually found his Juliet in 17-year-old My So-Called Life star Claire Danes. The cast included Brian Dennehy and Paul Sorvino as the feuding fathers and John Leguizamo as Tybalt — a role Christian Bale also auditioned for — before heading to Mexico for a production almost as chaotic as the play. Hurricanes destroyed sets. Illness shut down filming for a week. Hairstylist Aldo Signoretti was kidnapped and released for a $300 ransom. Somehow, they finished the picture.

Fox opened William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet on Nov. 1, 1996. THR called it “clever and well-executed,” audiences turned the $15 million experiment into a $147 million worldwide hit and the film earned an Oscar nom for art direction. It also helped launch DiCaprio toward Titanic and saw Danes cast in multiple films. Looking back 25 years later, even Luhrmann seemed surprised. “The fact that [the film] even got made is kind of bonkers,” he said.

This story appeared in the Oct. 7 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.