Emerald Fennell is responding to critics who feel Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi were the wrong choices for the new Wuthering Heights adaptation.
Last week, the 39-year-old Oscar winner attended the Brontë Women’s Writing Festival and defended her casting decisions.
Keep reading to find out more…
Emerald previously worked with Jacob on Saltburn and says she liked him for the part of Healthcliff because he “looked exactly like the illustration of Heathcliff on the first book that I read,” via BBC News.
“It seemed to me he had the thing…. He’s a very surprising actor,” Emerald continued.
In the 1847 novel, author Emily Brontë heavily implies that Heathcliff is not white. It’s a critical aspect of the book. So some fans have accused the director of white-washing his character.
As for the female lead, Cathy, she is a teenager in the novel and Margot is 35.
The Promising Young Woman director says the Barbie star is “not like anyone” she’s met, and she felt similar with the character of Cathy.
Emerald continued, saying Margot is “so beautiful and interesting and surprising, and she is the type of person who, like Cathy, could get away with anything.”
“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,” she concluded.
The Oscar-nominated actress also produced Wuthering Heights and Emerald‘s previous two films.
Wuthering Heights will be released in theaters on February 13, 2026.
Get your first look at Margot and Jacob in Wuthering Heights in the recently released teaser.