Premiering February 13th, Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” is an adaptation filled with lust, doomed romance and a brand new Charli XCX album — what more could you ask for?
The film is a steamy, intense adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel “Wuthering Heights,” which follows the destructive and obsessive relationship between Heathcliff, played by Jacob Elordi, and Cathrine Earnshaw, played by Margot Robbie. The Warner Bro’s Picture film is inspired by the original novel and includes modern edge while exploring themes of revenge, class and passion.
VALLEY had the opportunity to join a roundtable with Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie to learn how this movie adaptation came to life.
Creating the Characters
Cathy and Heathcliff don’t just rely on each other throughout their lives, but rather they create one another. Growing up side by side, the pair leans on and learns from the other. As children, their wildness runs free like the Yorkshire moors they live on, but as Cathy and Heathcliff grow up, their relationship evolves from companionship into obsessive and haunting madness.
As actors, the portrayal of this relationship became crucial to the film. Robbie could only do so much preparation as Cathy before seeing and working with Elordi. His choices influenced her own:
Everything Jacob did completely informed my performance.
Elordi brought a similar sentiment to set, while also making sure to observe how Robbie acted as Cathy even when Heathcliff was not around. He explained that it was the nature of the parts themselves, he was constantly watching how Cathy interacted with Edgar. The relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff was a constant conversation that felt like dueling parts at times.
Elordi also explained that entering the headspace of Heathcliff brought out a new side of himself. He was able to act on all of the things a person shouldn’t do when they are in love with somebody already married.
That kind of obsession and love exists inside all of us, we access and utilize it in different ways.
Between Passion and Danger
Each story, movie and book, explores the symbiotic, almost vengeful relationship that Cathy and Heathcliff have between each other. Oftentimes their destructive bond borders on the line between love and hate. This spiritual, and sometimes toxic, connection is pushed even further through the color story that the film tells.
Robbie said that she was able to access the specific part of herself that could play Cathy through the film’s color palette. Through all of the movie’s promotion and film itself, we see a blend of traditional gothic style with modern touches. Throughout the story, viewers really only see Cathy in either red, black or white. Her style was incredibly intentional and Robbie took notice of it too. She mentioned that she color-coded her script: when Cathy was with Heathcliff, it was pinks and reds (depending on how intense the scene was), and when she was away from him, the script turned to a cool blue. Robbie also explained that the specific choice of red played into the lustful and dangerous relationship the film explored.
For me, it represents love, both the passionate side of it, but also the firey dangerous side too.
Elordi agreed with Robbie’s sentiments and said that Cathy and Heathcliff share a heart and often that red represents the blood that runs between both of them. They were one and the same and it begs the question of if one can exist without the other.
In Theaters Now
This is the third of Fennell’s films that Robbie has been a part of and said that she would follow Fennell anywhere, that she approaches stories and directing with such passion and artistic integrity. The way that Fennell deeply cares about this story is felt throughout the film and its production. The visceral reactions that Fennell’s films create in people resonated with Robbie:
Some movies are designed to make you think and some movies are designed to make you feel and I feel like this is all feeling.
“Wuthering Heights” will be out in theaters February 13th, a perfect Valentine’s Day plan for anyone who’s obsessed with love… and destructive love of course.
Let us know what you think of the movie by tweeting us @VALLEYmag on X!
