FILM · 1996 · USA
Romeo + Juliet
30 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
30 Interesting Facts About Romeo + Juliet
Interesting Facts (24)
- #001
Renowned hair stylist Aldo Signoretti was kidnapped by gang members and held for a $300 ransom that Baz Luhrmann paid.
- #002
Leonardo DiCaprio's delivery of Romeo's speech at Juliet's funeral was so good that it moved Claire Danes to tears and nearly ruined the scene. The moment the director shouted "cut," Danes hit DiCaprio on the arm and said: "Don't make me cry. I'm supposed to be comatose, here!"
- #003
Baz Luhrmann sent the alternative rock band Radiohead a video cassette containing the film's last 20 minutes and asked them to make a song for the film's final section. They composed "Exit Music (for a film)," which appeared on their 1997 album "OK Computer" (the director said in his DVD commentary that he believes it is one of the best exit themes ever written).
- #004
To raise the necessary money from backers, Leonardo DiCaprio flew to Australia at his own expense and shot a private audition video with Baz Luhrmann.
- #005
The opening gas station encounter took 7 days to shoot, with 2 days of pickup shots in Veracruz.
- #006
Claire Danes wears a wig throughout the film and also wore a special underwater wig for the underwater scenes.
- #007
The Jesus statue overlooking Verona was actually a visual effect. In reality it was 2 feet tall.
- #008
Like most of William Shakespeare's works, the verse of Romeo and Juliet is written in iambic pentameter. Pete Postlethwaite, who played Father Laurence, is the only actor in the film who speaks in that meter.
- #009
- #010
Shakespeare described Tybalt's swordsmanship as "showy." John Leguizamo worked with choreographer John O'Connell to turn it into a flamboyant display of weapon play, creating a style inspired by flamenco.
- #011
Romeo and Juliet's first kiss, in a cramped elevator with the camera spinning dizzily around them, was achieved by dividing the elevator into sections and mounting the camera on a circular rig. As it rotated, crew members lifted floor panels to place the large camera equipment and swapped them out very quickly.
- #012
The music playing as Juliet shoots herself at the end of the film is Isolde's "Liebestod" from Richard Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde (1974), and the music is used in the same context there.
- #013
Claire Danes's first day on set filming with Leonardo DiCaprio was the topless scene that follows Romeo and Juliet's first night together.
- #014
The black eye seen on Sampson Montague (Jamie Kennedy) was real. In his reaction video to Romeo + Juliet, Jamie mentioned that he got into a fight in a bar in Mexico City. They were going to cover up the bruise, but director Baz liked his look and applied it to the character.
- #015
Throughout the film there are various billboards, advertisements and magazines containing quotations from other William Shakespeare plays: (A.S.L = Act, scene and line number) * "Strike the thunder" (a gun advertisement) is from Henry VI, Part 2, IV.i.109. * "Experience is by industry achieved" (in the Capulet elevator) is from The Two Gentlemen of Verona, I.iii.25. * "Such stuff as dreams are made on" (another advertisement) is from The Tempest, IV.i.168-169. Prospero (the name of the drink in the advertisement) is the character who speaks these lines. * "Add more fuel to your fire" (a sign at the gas station) is from Henry VI, Part 3, V.iv.70. * "From retail to posterity" (a Montague corporate poster) is from Richard III, III.i.77 * "A sudden and violent flame of revolt" (a newspaper headline seen through the flames at the end of the gas station scene) is from Richard II, II.i.34 * "I am thy pistol and thy friend" (a gun poster in the pool hall named Globe after the Globe Theatre in London where Shakespeare's plays were first staged) is from Henry IV, Part 2, V.iii.85 "Jack Cade's Lemonade" is a stand seen next to Sycamore Grove. Jack Cade is a prominent character in Shakespeare's Henry VI Part 2.
- #016
Natalie Portman, then 13, was the favorite for Juliet and even did screen tests with 21-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio. In the end, however, the director and producers decided she was too young and that it would not be appropriate for the pair to play lovers. Portman understood and agreed with them.
- #017
All the guns in the film are named after types of swords. The pistols belonging to Benvolio (SWORD 9mm Series S), Mercutio (DAGGER 9mm) and Tybalt (RAPIER 9mm) are Taurus PT99 9mm Parabellum pistols, recognizable by their adjustable rear sights. The pistols used by Romeo, Sampson and Gregory (DAGGER.45s) are Para-Ordnance P-13.45-caliber pistols. In the scene where Mercutio holds Romeo's pistol, it becomes a Para-Ordnance P-14. The other pistols used by Abra and Petruchio are two-tone and reverse two-tone Beretta 92FS 9mm pistols. Ted Montague's "Longsword" is actually a South African MAG-7 shotgun.
- #018
In the original play, the Prince says he has lost two relatives, Mercutio and Paris, in the dispute between the Capulets and Montagues. In the film, however, Paris does not die, yet Captain Prince still says he has lost a pair of relatives.
- #019
The production designer and the costume designer appear as cameos as Gloria Capulet's servants. In the film they are seen dressing Juliet's mother in a Cleopatra costume before the ball.
- #020
Water appears in many key scenes in the film. When Romeo is first seen he is writing at the water's edge on the beach, and when Juliet is first seen she is holding her head under the water. When Romeo and Juliet first see each other, they look at each other through an aquarium; the balcony scene moves from the balcony to a swimming pool; Mercutio is killed on the beach; when Tybalt is shot he falls into a fountain; when Romeo comes to Juliet's room he is soaked by pouring rain, and when he leaves the room the next morning he falls into the pool again.
- #021
The choreographer plays the waiter at Sycamore Grove just before Mercutio's death scene.
- #022
The film's co-producer is the security guard sitting at the monitors in the balcony scene.
- #023
In the opening scene, the Montagues sing in the car, and one of them sings "Double, double, toil and trouble…", a recurring line from William Shakespeare's Macbeth.
- #024
Robert Eggers is preparing to direct an adaptation of William Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'. According to an exclusive report by the Hollywood Reporter, the development was confirmed when Focus Features won the auction for the film project.
Behind the Scenes (3)
- #025
Cinematographer Donald McAlpine faced a real problem in the aquarium scene where Romeo and Juliet meet: lighting the water's reflections and the tank's glass without causing any unwanted reflections was nearly impossible. McAlpine solved it by placing several fluorescent tubes inside the tank at camera eye level. These were the only light source in the scene.
- #026
Most of the sets were built from scratch to achieve the film's unique look. The Sycamore Grove theatre and the huts at Verona Beach were actually destroyed by a hurricane during shooting. The onset of the hurricane is clearly visible in Mercutio's death scene, and many shots had to be filmed elsewhere.
- #027
When Tybalt's car rolled over, the roll cage used to protect the stunt driver collapsed and nearly broke the stunt driver's neck.
Characters & Cast (3)
- #028
On the last day of shooting, Paul Rudd and Leonardo DiCaprio were heading to a bar to celebrate when DiCaprio casually mentioned he was considering the lead in a studio film called Titanic (1997). Rudd, who was an expert on the great ship's history thanks to his father, urged DiCaprio to jump at the offer.
- #029
Leonardo DiCaprio fought for Claire Danes to win the role of Juliet, impressed by her line readings and by the fact that she was the only actress who looked him directly in the eyes.
- #030
Ewan McGregor, Christian Bale and John Leguizamo auditioned for the role of Mercutio before Baz Luhrmann decided to make Mercutio black. Benicio Del Toro was considered for the role of Tybalt.
Related pages
- Kit Harington — Romeo + Juliet comes up in the facts on that page
- Reese Witherspoon — Romeo + Juliet comes up in the facts on that page
- Hot Fuzz — Romeo + Juliet comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
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