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Shakespeare in Teen Movies |
By the mid-1990s, Shakespeare’s ever-evolving relationship with Hollywood had spun off in an unexpected direction: the teen movie. Young stars like Heath Ledger, Leonardo DiCaprio, Amanda Bynes, Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon Levitt, and Mekhi Phifer, to name only a few, found themselves playing Shakespeare-inspired high-school athletes, cheerleaders, gang-bangers, and other characters in movies like O, 10 Things I Hate About You, She’s the Man, and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet—among others. Film historian Vicki Botnick explores the youth movie trend.
Film historian
The Shakespeare teen movie trend
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Shaping Shakespeare for teen audiences
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Baz Luhrmann and Shakespeare’s words
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Buena Vista/Photofest. © Buena Vista.
Lions Gate/Photofest. © Lions Gate
20th Century Fox/Photofest. © 20th Century Fox