Wuthering Heights director Emerald Fennell defended her controversial casting choice of Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as the stars of the upcoming movie.
The two stars' involvement in the new adaptation of the classic Emily Brontë novel has been criticized by some fans. They felt that Robbie was too old to play Catherine, who is depicted as a teenager in the source material. Elordi was deemed inappropriate for the casting of Heathcliff since he is supposed to be "dark-skinned" in the novel.
Why Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi Were Cast in Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights
During her recent appearance at Brontë Women's Writing Festival (via BBC), Fennell explained her decision to cast Robbie and Elordi as Catherine and Heathcliff in her adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
For Robbie, she felt that an actress of caliber was needed to play Catherine, and the Barbie star was someone who could play a character who could get away with anything.
"[She is] not like anyone I've ever met - ever - and I think that's what I felt like with Cathy. [She is ] so beautiful and interesting and surprising, and she is the type of person who, like Cathy, could get away with anything," the director said.
"I think honestly she could commit a killing spree and nobody would mind. And that is who Cathy is to me. Cathy is somebody who just pushes to see how far she can go."
Fennell added, "So it needed somebody like Margot, who's a star, not just an incredible actress – which she is – but somebody who has a power, an otherworldly power, a Godlike power, that means people lose their minds."
In the case of Elordi, Fennell cast him based on an illustration of the character from a version of the novel she had read.
"[He] looked exactly like the illustration of Heathcliff in the first book that I read. And it was so awful because I so wanted to scream. Not the professional thing to do, obviously," she explained.
"I had been thinking about making it [Wuthering Heights], and it seemed to me he had the thing... he's a very surprising actor."
What to Expect in Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights
Fennell's Wuthering Heights focuses on a passionate and tumultuous love story set against the backdrop of the Yorkshire moors, exploring the intense and destructive relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw.
Regarding why the film will be more sexually charged than the other adaptations, Fennell explained, "I wanted to make something that made me feel like I felt when I first read it, which means that it's an emotional response to something. It's, like, primal, sexual."
Aside from Robbie and Elordi, the cast also includes Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Martin Clunes, Owen Cooper, and Ewan Mitchell.
The film is set to arrive in theaters on February 13, 2026, just in time for Valentine's Day weekend.
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