I didn’t know it on the time however I’m dyslexic and mastering the words and dialect was troublesome for me so I already felt weak. I had been in Los Angeles for about three years doing some modeling and learning appearing with Roy London once I received an audition for a Franco Zeffirelli movie, Sparrow. Franco was iconic and at that time had carried out Hamlet with Mel Gibson, The Champ with Jon Voight, Endless Love, Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor… so you possibly can think about what a big opportunity this was for me.
It was 1992, and the newcomer was thrilled to work with the Italian filmmaker, famed for films similar to The Champ, La Traviata and Romeo and Juliet, for which he earned a 1969 Oscar nod for greatest director. But Schaech says Zeffirelli harassed and sexually abused him during the shoot, a trauma he’s stored secret for 25 years. Hopeful his story may help make positive change, the Ray Donovan actor, now forty eight, who rose to fame in That Thing You Do! , shared this primary-particular person account with PEOPLE’s Elizabeth Leonard. In a press release, Zeffirelli’s son, Pippo, denied his father, now …
