Margot Robbie has defended Emerald Fennell‘s Wuthering Heights adaptation over the casting controversy, asking fans to “just wait”.
Shortly after Robbie and Jacob Elordi were announced as Catherine and Heathcliff in Fennell’s adaptation of the 1850 Emily Brontë classic, the news was met with disapproval from fans as they felt the actors were the wrong age and race.
Elordi’s casting in particular was heavily criticised as the character in the books is described as having dark hair, dark eyes, and dark skin, and is believed to be from a Roma or Gypsy background.
The Independent’s film critic Clarisse Loughrey asked at the time: “Did anyone actually read the book before deciding this?”
In a new cover story, Robbie said she understands the backlash and asked fans to watch the film because they’ll “be happy”.
“I get it, there’s nothing else to go off at this point until people see the movie,” she told British Vogue.
Brontë’s Wuthering Heights follows the relationship between the Earnshaws and the Lintons in rural Yorkshire around 1770 and the tumultuous relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff, has been eagerly anticipated since it was first announced last year.
The film also stars Hong Chau as Nelly Dean, Alison Oliver as Isabella Linton, Shazad Latif as Edgar Linton, and Adolescence star Owen Cooper as the younger Heathcliff.
On Elordi’s casting, Robbie said: “I saw him play Heathcliff. And he is Heathcliff. I’d say, just wait. Trust me, you’ll be happy. It’s a character that has this lineage of other great actors who’ve played him, from Laurence Olivier to Richard Burton and Ralph Fiennes to Tom Hardy. 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.”
In fact, the story revealed that Elordi is the reason Fennell came up with the idea for the Wuthering Heights film. Fennell, who was filming Saltburn, saw the Frankenstein star in costume as Felix Catton, and immediately saw him in the role.
“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,’” Fennell told British Vogue. “
The Promising Young Woman director also defended Robbie as Cathy, who she aged up by around a decade, as opposed to book Cathy, who is in her twenties.
“Cathy is a star. She’s wilful, mean, a recreational sadist, a provocateur. She engages in cruelty in a way that is disturbing and fascinating. It was about finding someone who you would forgive in spite of yourself, someone who literally everyone in the world would understand why you love her. It’s difficult to find that supersized star power. Margot comes with big dick energy. That’s what Cathy needs,” said Fennell.
The first teaser for the film dropped earlier this year, and shows Catherine thinking about Heathcliff who tells her he’ll follow her “like a dog till the end of the world,” along with a shot of Heathcliff’s finger in her mouth.
In August, audience members at a test screening for the film described it as “sexually explicit” and “tonally abrasive”. According to film news site World of Reel, the retelling features several explicit scenes and significantly deviates from the source material.
One audience member at the first test screening for the film in Dallas, who described the film as “aggressively provocative”, said it had parallels with the “stylised depravity” seen in director Fennell’s provocative 2023 dark comedy Saltburn.
However, Robbie said that those expecting the film to be “very raunchy” will end up being “surprised”.
“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 said.
“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.”
Wuthering Heights is set to be released in theatres on 13 February 2026.
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