Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights movie is right around the corner, and many fans still have reservations about the adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel. Now, Margot Robbie — who serves as star and producer — is opening up about the criticism ahead of the film’s Feb. 13 premiere.
In a new interview with British Vogue, Robbie opened up about some of the most obvious departures from Brontë’s novel — beginning with her character, Catherine “Cathy” Earnshaw. In the book, Cathy has brown hair, and the Earnshaws’ “handsome dark eyes” mark a symbolic difference from their neighbors, the Lintons. However, Robbie sports her familiar blonde hair and blue eyes in the film.
Additionally, in the novel, Cathy only lives to be 18 years old. But Fennell told Vogue that Robbie, who’s 35, is playing a version of Cathy from her mid-20s to early 30s. “I get it,” Robbie told the magazine, acknowledging that “there’s nothing else to go off at this point until people see the movie.”
In the interview (published on Dec. 4), Robbie also weighed in on the overall tone of the film. The first teaser — set to a catchy, cinematic remix of Charli XCX’s “Everything is Romantic” — included erotic imagery that took many viewers by surprise. “Everyone’s expecting this to be very, very raunchy. I think people will be surprised,” Robbie said. “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.”
Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff
Of course, the biggest controversy behind Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is the casting of Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff. Fennell told Vogue that seeing the actor in costume on Saltburn, “I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s the Heathcliff on the cover of the book that I’ve had since I was a teenager.”
However, as readers have pointed out, Heathcliff is described as “dark-skinned” in Brontë’s novel. At one point, he wishes that he had “light hair and fair skin” like Edgar Linton, whom Cathy ultimately marries. Throughout the novel, several characters speculate about his ethnic background, and according to the Brontë Parsonage Museum, it’s been theorized that Heathcliff may be of African descent.
For Robbie, however, “I saw him play Heathcliff. And he is Heathcliff.”
The Barbie alum went on to address potential viewers directly. “I’d say, just wait. Trust me, you’ll be happy,” she said, adding that Elordi joins the “lineage of other great actors” who have portrayed Heathcliff. “To be a part of that is special. He’s incredible, and I believe in him so much. I honestly think he’s our generation’s Daniel Day-Lewis.”
