Actor-Inspired Heroism: Paris can become this depending on the production. He's there to be an obstacle preventing Romeo and Juliet from being together since he's the one she's betrothed to. As he doesn't do anything outright villainous in the story, he can be portrayed as another innocent victim of the feud alongside the two lovers if the actor says his lines differently.
Dawson Casting: Tends to attract this to the point where an amateur staging with middle-aged or even older leads is practically a Stock Joke.
Fridge Brilliance: A ghost character named Valentine appears on the Capulet's guest list for the ball; "Mercutio and his brother Valentine". Valentine never appears in the play or is mentioned again. What's the one other Shakespeare play that also takes place in Verona? The Two Gentlemen of Verona, in which one of the eponymous gentlemen is named Valentine.
1995, conducted by Michel Plasson: French tenor Roberto Alagna as Roméo, Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu as Juliette, Belgian bass-baritone José van Dam as Frère Laurent, British baritone Simon Keenlyside as Mercutio, French mezzo-soprano Marie-Ange Todorovitch as Stéphano, and French baritone Alain Fondary as Capulet.
The 1936 Film:
Actor Allusion: Norma Shearer had played Juliet in a parody of the balcony scene in The Hollywood Revue of 1929.
Awesome, Dear Boy: Edna May Oliver wanted to play the Nurse so badly she turned down a chance to star in Show Boat.
Dawson Casting: The teenaged Romeo was played by Leslie Howard, who was in his forties. Norma Shearer was in her thirties when she played Juliet.
Follow the Leader: The film was only greenlit after the success of A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1935 because MGM executives were convinced that Shakespeare wouldn't be seen by the masses.
Troubled Production: It ran six months and the budget bloated to well over $2 million, making it MGM's most expensive movie at the time. John Barrymore was also frequently drunk on the set, despite the studio executives trying to prevent it.
John Gielgud turned down the part of Romeo, and it went to Leslie Howard instead. Robert Donat and Laurence Olivier also turned it down.
William Randolph Hearst heavily campaigned for his mistress Marion Davies to be cast as Juliet. MGM felt she would have been miscast and should stick to comedies.
The 2013 Film:
Dawson Casting: Averted. Producers had planned to cast a twenty-something actress as Juliet, but fourteen-year-old Hailee Steinfeld played it.
Playing Against Type: If you go by on-screen work that is. Damian Lewis is a Shakespearian Actor, but his most famous on-screen roles have been as soldiers, assassins, and cops. Here he's Lord Capulet.
