Emerald Fennell has spoken publicly for the first time about her upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights, describing it as “primal, sexual” and defending her casting choices. The Oscar-winning director of Saltburn addressed the controversy at the Brontë Women’s Writing festival over the weekend, where she revealed the novel “cracked me open” when she first read it at 14.
Fennell said her adolescent experience of the book inspired her approach to the story of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. “It’s an emotional response to something. It’s primal, sexual,” she said. “There’s an enormous amount of sado-masochism in this book. There’s a reason people were deeply shocked by it.” She described making the film as “an act of extreme masochism” because she loves the novel so much.
The production has faced backlash for casting Margot Robbie as Catherine and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, with critics calling for a Black actor to play Heathcliff, who is described in the book as having dark hair, dark eyes and dark skin. Fennell explained that Elordi reminded her of Dirk Bogarde and “looked exactly like the illustration of Heathcliff on the first book that I read”. She described Robbie as “the type of person who, like Cathy, could get away with anything”.
Fennell confirmed the film will focus only on the first half of the novel, ending before Cathy’s death, and will include “an enormous amount of dialogue verbatim”. Addressing sceptics, she said: “I can’t make something for everyone.”
