Emerald Fennell has spoken publicly for the first time about her upcoming adaptation of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, defending her casting choices and describing the novel as 'primal, sexual' material. The Oscar-winning director of Saltburn addressed the controversy at the Brontë Women's Writing festival over the weekend, where she revealed details about her sex-charged retelling.
Fennell said she has been 'obsessed' with the book since reading it at age 14, calling it 'very illicit' and 'very personal material for everyone'. She described the adaptation as 'an act of extreme masochism' and noted that 'there's an enormous amount of sado-masochism in this book'. The film stars Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, a casting decision that has drawn criticism for not casting a Black actor as Heathcliff, who is described as having dark skin in the novel.
Fennell explained that Elordi reminded her of Dirk Bogarde and 'looked exactly like the illustration of Heathcliff on the first book that I read'. Of Robbie, she said she is 'the type of person who, like Cathy, could get away with anything'. The film will focus on the first half of the book and include 'an enormous amount of dialogue is verbatim', according to Fennell.
