Margot Robbie has defended Jacob Elordi’s casting in Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, urging fans to “just wait” and allow themselves to be surprised.
READ MORE: Emerald Fennell is well aware of her own privilege: “Class is such a fixation in this country”
The Saltburn filmmaker’s next project is an adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel, starring Robbie and Elordi as doomed lovers Catherine and Heathcliff.
The first trailer for the film arrived back in September and has been skewered for everything from its anachronistic wardrobe to its overt eroticism. What’s proven most controversial though, has been Elordi’s casting in the film, which drew significant backlash because of Heathcliff’s ethnicity, given he is described as “dark skinned” in the book.
Speaking to British Vogue recently, Robbie said she understood the backlash but asked fans to approach the film with an open mind. “I get it, there’s nothing else to go off at this point until people see the movie,” she said.
When asked about 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.”
Elsewhere in the Vogue piece, Fennell revealed Elordi was the reason she wanted to pursue a Wuthering Heights film. Having seen him in costume as Felix Catton in Saltburn, she said she 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.’”
She also also defended the choice to have Robbie play Cathy, who she aged up by around a decade, as opposed to the original book material, in which Cathy is in her 20s.
“Cathy is a star. She’s wilful, mean, a recreational sadist, a provocateur,” the director said. “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.”
Back in April, Jacob Elordi revealed that he wanted to “take a break” from acting, until Fennell asked him to star in her new project. Elsewhere, his co-lead Margot Robbie was reportedly in talks to produce and star in director Tim Burton’s remake of Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman.
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