Jamie Kennedy Shares 'Romeo + Juliet' Anecdotes

The black eye Jamie Kennedy sports in Romeo + Juliet was real, and he feared it would cost him his role in the 1996 Baz Luhrmann classic.

The comic-actor shared a few interesting behind-the-scenes stories when he recently went through the opening of the film on his YouTube channel.

Kennedy played Sampson, whose bright pink hair and black eye made him hard to forget. As it turns out, the actor says he got in a fight just before production began and feared he would lose his first sizable role in a major film because of it.

“It’s a long story,” Kennedy said. “Basically, we went to a night club and some stuff happened. And I was involved, and I got a black eye. Baz is so brilliant. He’s like, ‘Yeah, I like it. I can use that.’ I thought I was going to lose the movie. Baz is like, ‘You would have a black eye. You guys are brawlers.’ So they worked it in and added the black eye for the whole shoot.”

The actor also explained how an overzealous extra was worked into the opening gas station scene, which was filmed in Mexico City.

“We had a lady who was an extra and she just kept fucking hitting me with the purse,” Kennedy said. Even after Luhrmann would call cut, the extra keep hitting Kennedy and the look of disgust on his face in the film is real, as he explained Luhrmann loved it and used it.

Watch the entire video below.

Aldo Pusey

Update: 2024-08-09

JazzVibe