The director wants the film, starring Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie, to become a hit and be screened in theaters beyond its original run. Citing Fennell’s words, Robbie told British Vogue, “I want this to be this generation’s Titanic. I went to the cinema to watch Romeo & Juliet eight times, and I was on the ground crying when I wasn’t allowed to go back for a ninth. I want it to be that.”
“Everyone’s expecting this to be very, very raunchy. I think people will be surprised. Not to say there aren’t sexual elements and that it’s not provocative – it definitely is provocative – but it’s more romantic than provocative,” Robbie stated. “This is a big epic romance. It’s just been so long since we’ve had one – maybe The Notebook, also The English Patient. You have to go back decades. It’s that feeling when your chest swells, or it’s like someone’s punched you in the guts and the air leaves your body. That’s a signature of Emerald’s. Whether it’s titillating or repulsion, her superpower is eliciting a physical response.”
Following the movie’s official announcement last year, Emerald Fennell’s planned film version of Wuthering Heights, based on Emily Brontë’s iconic 1847 novel, has generated significant controversy over its casting. Fact of the day, numerous people believed that Jacob Elordi was sufficiently white to play Heathcliff, who is defined in the book as “dark-skinned,” and that Margot Robbie was old enough to play Catherine Earnshaw, who is just eighteen years old in the book.
Although Heathcliff’s ethnic roots are left unclear throughout the book, he is referred to as “a little Lascar” by another character, meaning he resembles a sailor from Southeast Asia. Later in the text, Heathcliff is described as a “ragged, black-haired child… as dark almost as if it came from the devil.” He has also been referred to as ‘gypsy’ by Joseph, the househelp.
It’s important to note that, aside from the 2011 movie in which James Howson played the role, Heathcliff has traditionally been represented by stereotypical caucasian actors.
Following a Q&A session at the Sands Film Festival in Scotland earlier this April, Kharmel Cochrane, the film’s casting director, fanned the flames by defending the two actors playing the parts. Here, she contended that since Wuthering Heights is “just a book,” the performers do not have to portray the characters exactly as Brontë intended. (ouch)
She stated, “If something is clearly written as white, for example, a script reads ‘she tied her blonde hair back,’ but there’s no specific reason for it, I will just put people on tape. And then it’s almost like I dare someone to question why I’ve done it, and they don’t. So then it just becomes normal. Years ago, I would get people saying, ‘Did you read the brief?’ And I’d say yeah, and this is my interpretation of it, just like when you can read a book.”
