Emerald Fennell and controversy are an established pop culture duo at this point. Her sexual assault revenge thriller Promising Young Woman, with Carey Mulligan, and her class satire Saltburnboth triggered an avalanche of online discourse, with reactionary takes still pouring in months after the films premiered.
It seems her highly-anticipated adaptation of Wuthering Heights, due in cinemas early next year, is set to follow in similar footsteps, after the first images of Margot Robbie as heroine Cathy surfaced. Robbie, 34, is also a producer on the film, with her company LuckyChap Entertainment having collaborated with Fennell on her previous two films. In character, Robbie is pictured in the countryside wearing a voluminous white wedding dress and veil, long blonde hair cascading behind her. She looks ethereal. What could possibly be the problem, you might be thinking. Yet the grievances already abound.
Many have pointed out that Emily Brontë’s heroine was roughly 18 when she died, making Robbie a surprising casting choice. In the novel, Heathcliffe also describes her as having ‘beautiful’ brown hair, yet the actor’s radiant blonde hair is clearly visible in the shots of her on set.
Some X users have also become eagle-eyed sartorial historians, quick to point out that Robbie is wearing a bone-white wedding dress, when they only became popular in England after 1840, when Queen Victoria wore one to marry Prince Albert. , published in 1847, is set in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Referencing Robbie’s Princess Diana-style frock, one X user wrote, ‘I was unaware that Wuthering Heights was set during the 1980s but OK!’
The criticism of the film is also focused on the casting of Robbie’s co-star, Jacob Elordi, who will play Heathcliff (breakout star, Owen Cooper, will star as a younger version of the character). In the novel, Heathcliff is described as dark skinned and is discriminated against throughout the story because of this. For some commentators, there is frustration that the story’s racial tensions will be dropped or skimmed over. This is a common theme among TV and film adaptations of Brontë’s 1847 gothic novel, with many iterations casting a white male lead as Heathcliff, including Tom Hardy in ITV’s 2009 TV series.
Any film-maker adapting a literary classic walks a tightrope: how do you stay true to the source material while making something that feels new? Wuthering Heights is a story that has endured for two centuries for good reason. I remember reading it in English A-level aged 17 and thinking real love was Cathy and Heathcliff’s melodrama, pain and inability to be together in their lifetime. In today’s age, where the biggest hurdle to most people’s love story is failure to text back, Brontë’s devastating tale haunts your soul. It’s no wonder people are precious about the details.