Oscar-nominated for his monster<\/a> in Guillermo del Toro\u2019s \u201cFrankenstein.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cEmerald texted me and said, \u2018Do you want to be Heathcliff?\u2019\u201d Elordi recalls. \u201cThat was it. I said, \u2018Yeah.\u2019 And then when she gave the screenplay, I read it and wept. That\u2019s how you dream of making movies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only did Elordi look like the version of Heathcliff on the cover of Fennell\u2019s edition of the novel, but she had witnessed his potential for the role while making \u201cSaltburn.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Jacob Elordi in the movie \u201cWuthering Heights.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Warner Bros. Pictures)<\/p>\n
\u201cFelix is a character who does something awful in every scene,\u201d Fennell explains of Elordi\u2019s charismatic rich boy in \u201cSaltburn.\u201d \u201cBut it needed somebody who could make everyone in the audience forget that. And Jacob was the only person who came in and did that. Heathcliff is an extreme antihero. He\u2019s cruel and he\u2019s violent and he\u2019s relentless and he\u2019s vengeful and he\u2019s spiteful. Jacob has a sensitivity and tenderness and groundedness that makes us forgive all that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fennell knew the film hinged on the casting of Cathy and Heathcliff, two iconic literary characters who have been portrayed by a multitude of actors over the years, including Laurence Olivier, Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes. It\u2019s been broadly debated whether the novel actually is a love story between the snobbish Cathy and the glowering Heathcliff. For some, it\u2019s a tale of toxic fixation, for others a revenge plot or a tragedy. But Fennell\u2019s version is undeniably a big-screen romance.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe were looking for outsized charisma and outsized talent, people like Burton and Taylor,\u201d director Emerald Fennell says. \u201cA combination of actors who are explosively brilliant. And it\u2019s these two.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Shayan Asgharnia \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were looking for outsized charisma and outsized talent, people like Burton and Taylor,\u201d Fennell says of the classic onscreen pairing of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, famously tumultuous. \u201cA combination of actors who are explosively brilliant. And it\u2019s these two.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the coolest thing to say,\u201d Elordi says, covering his face with his hands. \u201cThis after years of hearing nothing,\u201d he quips. (Fennell says she is sparing with praise.)<\/p>\n
\u201cWuthering Heights\u201d reunites several of Fennell\u2019s repeat collaborators. Actor Alison Oliver, who appeared in \u201cSaltburn,\u201d plays Isabella Linton, Edgar\u2019s ward who becomes a problematic fixation for Heathcliff, and the filmmaker reteamed with cinematographer Linus Sandgren, production designer Suzie Davies and editor Victoria Boydell. Fennell also brought in new faces, including Hong Chau as Nelly Dean, Cathy\u2019s companion, and Shazad Latif as wealthy businessman Edgar Linton. She and Robbie aimed to create a creatively safe set.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very exposing, especially for the actors,\u201d Fennell says of making an audacious film like this. \u201cYou need to be able to forget that and feel that you have the ability to make mistakes and try something different.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fennell\u2019s direction was often unexpected.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember she prepped us for the long table scene and said, \u2018It needs to come to life,\u2019\u201d Elordi says. \u201cHeathcliff was brooding but she said, \u2018What if he wasn\u2019t brooding?\u2019 All of a sudden there was this electricity at the table. As an actor, that pushes me out of my comfort zone. And every time it works.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I like about working with Emerald is: I like going too far,\u201d Robbie agrees. \u201cMy instinct is to go really hard and then have someone tell me to pull it back. She rarely tells me to pull it back. She wants the maximalist version and I relish that. She would say, \u2018Now you\u2019re in a sensible period film.\u2019 And then she\u2019d say \u2018Now do it like you\u2019re Ursula the sea witch.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
That was the take that made the final cut. \u201cPart of it is there,\u201d Fennell confirms. \u201cUsually I use only a little moment of something but that\u2019s the crucial one. Because we\u2019re all so crazy in life, aren\u2019t we?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Cathy so is Ursula the sea witch,\u201d Robbie says.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s such a little sea witch,\u201d Fennell agrees.<\/p>\n
Fennell\u2019s reimagining of \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d amps up the existing emotions in the novel. She abridges its plot, removing the second-generation narrative that bookends Bront\u00eb\u2019s writing. The torment of Cathy\u2019s abusive brother shifts to the hands of her father, played by Martin Clunes.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the longing between Cathy and Heathcliff, who can\u2019t be together due to his lowly station and her spiteful decision to marry the wealthy Linton, accelerates dramatically into fervid sex scenes. The doomed couple erotically embrace on the Yorkshire Moors, in the back of a carriage and even inside her bedroom at Thrushcross Grange \u2014 all moments that are not part of the book.<\/p>\n
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Margot Robbie in the movie \u201cWuthering Heights.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Warner Bros. Pictures)<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re part of the book of my head,\u201d Fennell says, adamantly. \u201cI think they\u2019re part of the book of all of our heads. With all the love and respect and adoration I have for the book, I also wanted to make my own version that I needed to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is totally that wish fulfillment,\u201d Robbie says. \u201cAnd if you can\u2019t have the wish fulfillment in movies, where are you going to get it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Fennell imbued the film with tactile visuals that evoke the sexual tension between Cathy and Heathcliff. There are close-ups of hands kneading dough, a snail sliming its way up a window and Cathy prodding a jellied fish with her finger. The director tested numerous fish before selecting the one that is seen onscreen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy I love working with these guys so much is we\u2019re all detail perverts,\u201d Fennell says. \u201cI am obsessed with every single thing. That fish that Margot fingered \u2014 I fingered about 50 different fish before then. Tiny fish, big fish, fake fish, jelly that was wet, jelly that was soft, jelly that was firm.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think she\u2019s joking but she\u2019s not,\u201d Robbie says.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy finger smelled so bad the whole time that we were making this movie,\u201d Fennell adds.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, though, it was the best possible fish. \u201cWe did the takes with a couple of fish, but we all knew the right one when it happened,\u201d Robbie says of the scene, which mirrors the sexual disappointment in Cathy\u2019s marriage. \u201cWe all felt it in the same moment. Everyone went, \u2018That\u2019s it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie in the movie \u201cWuthering Heights.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Warner Bros. Pictures)<\/p>\n
The film\u2019s aesthetic is bold and brash, featuring brilliantly hued red floors and walls designed to look like Cathy\u2019s freckled skin. It lands somewhere between Disney fairy tale, \u201980s romance paperback art and old Hollywood glamour. Atmospheric mist pours across every scene. The estate of Wuthering Heights is foreboding and dark, with rocks splintering through the walls, while Linton\u2019s Thrushcross Grange bears a Victorian aesthetic, containing the outside world. \u201cIt\u2019s nature coming in and nature being kept out,\u201d Fennell says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s about what that means emotionally and metaphorically for the story and for these characters.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is purposefully no adherence to historical accuracy, particularly in the costumes. Designed by Jacqueline Durran<\/a>, the wardrobe was elaborately wild to underscore emotional truths rather than period relevancy.<\/p>\n\u201cYou couldn\u2019t not scream,\u201d Robbie says about trying on each piece. \u201cAnd then Emerald would come up with a platter of jewels and start decorating me like a Christmas tree.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was so much screaming every day,\u201d Fennell says. \u201cI always want people to have permission to go too far, to do something that\u2019s in bad taste, that\u2019s not subtle. I\u2019m really interested in pushing until that squeaking point where you\u2019re like, \u2018OK, that\u2019s too far.\u2019 It takes a lot of bravery to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even Elordi joined in the excitement. \u201cI was screaming at all the dresses,\u201d he says. \u201cMargot and Alison\u2019s dressing rooms flanked me so I\u2019d often get caught in the hallway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the world of the movie is heightened and beautifully garish, the romance is more grounded. You can feel how desperate Cathy and Heathcliff are for each other in their own twisted way, and despite their horrible machinations you want them to be together. The film ends differently from the novel, but it shares with it a sad inevitability.<\/p>\n
Fennell inherently understood what makes these characters so desirable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was led by my own feelings,\u201d she says. \u201cOn set, we were all trying to find that thing that made us get goosebumps. One of the earliest scenes we shot was where Heathcliff breaks the chair to build Cathy a fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
To help a shivering Cathy, Heathcliff rises from his wooden seat, smashes it on the floor and tosses the pieces into the fireplace. It\u2019s a moment of devotion from Heathcliff, but triggers a lustful response in Cathy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked around and all of these professionals, women and men, were agape. Everyone felt the same way as Cathy. That\u2019s what I was looking for every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe actually broke the chair,\u201d Robbie says. \u201cCathy\u2019s reaction is my genuine reaction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elordi understood the challenge of embodying such an iconic character, who has existed both on the page and on the screen for generations. He also didn\u2019t want to let Fennell down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew how personal the story was to Emerald and I knew the screenplay that she had written was extremely good, but I was like \u2018What makes you think I can do this?\u2019\u201d Elordi remembers. \u201cI had a lot of nerves but I jumped into it. This is a director you\u2019re really able to give everything to. The images that come from her head are so unique and singular. The first time I watched \u2018Saltburn\u2019 with her, I sat back and I realized I was in the presence of something truly great and original. To be able to investigate with her two times is a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n
Says Robbie, \u201cMy hope is always: There\u2019s got to be one person that watches this movie and thinks \u2018That\u2019s my favorite of all time.\u2019 I want to make a movie that is someone\u2019s favorite movie of all time and I\u2019ll know how much that means to them. That it might save them in whatever ways movies can save you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fennell\u2019s \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d shudders with feeling. And however audiences perceive it, its maker has done exactly what she intended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emerald Fennell\u2019s adaptation of \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d could only have been created by a true fan. The British filmmaker…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":582087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[18046,13978,1582,276,178747,109739,252440,1020,252441,65229,2961,224,5337,33700,5996,145068,252442,26525,5558,109740],"class_list":["post-582086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-actor","tag-book","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-cathy","tag-emerald-fennell","tag-fennell","tag-film","tag-heathcliff","tag-jacob-elordi","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-novel","tag-part","tag-robbie","tag-saltburn","tag-version","tag-writing","tag-wuthering-heights"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116051694792100506","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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