Oscar-nominated director Emerald Fennell has commented on her already controversial Wuthering Heights adaptation, offering some defense of her contested take on the classic tale of love and revenge. Starring Margot Robbie as Catherine and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, the modern adaptation of Emily Brontë’s novel is slated to hit theaters on February 13, 2026. The release of Wuthering Heights’ trailer brought a storm of backlash, with social media users criticizing the overtly sexual elements and the modern music (the soundtrack being composed by Charli XCX). This was in addition to pre-existing controversy surrounding the casting decisions, with Robbie being seen as too old to play Cathy and Heathcliff being whitewashed to be played by Elordi. Appearing on a panel at the Brontë Women’s Writing Festival in England on Friday, Fennell shared some insight into her thought process of making Wuthering Heights (quotes according to BBC). “I wanted to make something that made me feel like I felt when I first read it, which means that it’s an emotional response to something,” said Fennell. “It’s, like, primal, sexual.” Fennell spoke about how she was “driven mad by this book,” and that adapting it was a very personal experience for her. She also revealed more about her interpretation of the sexual aspects of Wuthering Heights, saying:
There’s an enormous amount of sado-masochism in this book. There’s a reason people were deeply shocked by it [when it was published]. But it’s been a kind of masochistic exercise working on it because I love it so much, and it can’t love me back, and I have to live with that. So it’s been troubling, but I think in a really useful way.

What Emerald Fennell Has Said About Casting Margot Robbie & Jacob Elordi

Margot Robbie wears a wedding gown in Wuthering Heights film adaptation

Finally, Fennell commented on her casting choices. Regarding Elordi, she said that one day on the set of Saltburn, he “looked exactly like the illustration of Heathcliff on the first book that [she] read.” With 35-year-old Robbie, who has been cast as teenage Cathy, Fennell said the Barbie star is: “[…] not like anyone I’ve ever met – ever – and I think that’s what I felt like with Cathy.” Fennell further said about Robbie:
[Robbie is] so beautiful and interesting and surprising, and she is the type of person who, like Cathy, could get away with anything. I think honestly she could commit a killing spree and nobody would mind. And that is who Cathy is to me. Cathy is somebody who just pushes to see how far she can go. So it needed somebody like Margot, who’s a star, not just an incredible actress – which she is – but somebody who has a power, an otherworldly power, a Godlike power, that means people lose their minds.

It seems that Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is being driven by her personal experience with the book and the characters. She suggests that it embodies the feelings the novel evoked in her when she was a teenager, and that Robbie and Elordi’s casting is due to her one-on-one interactions with them, which made her feel as though they were perfect for the leading duo in spirit. However, creating a movie around one’s personal interpretation of a classic work is risky. There is a possible interesting twist in the new Wuthering Heights that much of it happens in Cathy’s head, which could be a spot-on realization that comments on the character’s secret desires and fantasies as well as the sexual tension present in the original novel. On the other hand, Fennell casting Elordi based on her own perception of him looking like Heathcliff probably won’t be seen as an acceptable explanation. Given the history of whitewashing in Hollywood and some of the novel’s themes, Fennell should have let this one go, even if the rest of her movie was true to her individual vision. Thus, Fennell’s recent comments aren’t likely to save Wuthering Heights from the difficult box office run it faces next year, when these issues remain at the forefront of its coverage.

Release Date

February 13, 2026

Director

Emerald Fennell

Writers

Emerald Fennell