‘Wuthering Heights’ stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi on Emerald Fennell’s ‘bold’ vision: 'Would follow her anywhere’

Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi aren’t holding back when they talk about Emerald Fennell’s wild new take on ‘Wuthering Heights’. They’re both all in, totally sold on Fennell’s approach to Emily Brontë’s classic.

“I would follow her anywhere,” Robbie says to Variety, and Elordi just nods in agreement.

This isn’t yesteryear’s ‘Wuthering Heights’. The film, out in theaters this Valentine’s weekend, throws out the old rulebook. Fennell’s version is bold, moody, and impossible to ignore. The movie dives headfirst into the raw intensity and twisted romance at the heart of the story, but Fennell adds her own modern spin.

The result? Something that feels electric and new, nothing like the faded sepia-toned adaptations the audience might fail to forget.

‘Wuthering Heights’: What is it about?

Emily Brontë’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ is all stormy moors and doomed love. Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff grow up together, their bond turning fierce and obsessive. Still, class and pride get in the way. Catherine marries someone richer, Edgar Linton, and everything falls apart — love turns to revenge, and passion curdles into obsession. The book isn’t just a romance; it’s messy, dark, and complicated. It digs into how love can haunt and wreck people as much as it can bring them together.

Sure, other movies have tried to bottle the chaos and wildness of Brontë’s world, but each of them has its own approach and version of it. Fennell’s version? According to Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, she nailed the yearning bit of it.

‘Wuthering Heights’: Emerald Fennell’s vision

Emerald Fennell isn’t messing around when it comes to a brand new take on Brontë’s novel. Her take on ‘Wuthering Heights’ doesn’t tiptoe through the old lines or stick to the usual playbook. She’s gone for something bold, something you actually feel in your bones. Right from the first frame, the film hits you with striking imagery and an atmosphere thick with tension and gothic energy. It’s raw, it’s sensual, and it pulls you in way deeper than any previous adaptation. Fennell has said straight up — she wants you to feel this story, not just sit back and watch.

That means she’s added new moments of intimacy, cracked open the characters’ inner lives, and let the emotions run wild. This isn’t just another buttoned-up period drama. Fennell is a self-confessed ‘Wuthering Heights’ fanatic herself.

Fennell told Variety, “The moment I read it, it just broke me open.” Years later, after ‘Promising Young Woman’ and ‘Saltburn’, she found herself circling back to that book. She wanted to make something that actually makes people feel — like, physically respond. That’s when it clicked: this was the story.

When she started writing, one haunting, almost feral image popped into her head. (If you’ve seen ‘Saltburn’, you know Fennell loves an unforgettable opening.) She teases a moment “on a rock” that’s going to stick with people, but she’s not giving away the details yet.

The core of the story—Cathy and Heathcliff’s wild, unputdownable, and destructive bond—is still there. But Fennell has changed how the whole thing unfolds. She zeroes in on the first half of the book and stops before the next generation takes over. That tight focus turns up the heat and the heartbreak.

Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi: How they fit into Cathy and Heathcliff

Margot Robbie, who produced the film with her LuckyChap team, has stood by every creative choice, including the casting. She’s called the story “more romantic than provocative,” even though it pushes plenty of boundaries. Robbie says her connection with Jacob Elordi (Heathcliff) made their performances hit harder and feel more real.

Elordi, for his part, credits Fennell with pushing him to go beyond just brooding. Their chemistry on screen is intense—magnetic, even—which has become a huge asset for the film. Fennell actually wrote her version of ‘Wuthering Heights’ with Elordi in mind, partly inspired by his ‘Saltburn’ sideburns, which reminded her of the Heathcliff she’d always pictured.

Elordi says, “Emerald loves this work with her soul. This book pumps through her.” He admits he wondered if he could do justice to the role, especially since actors like Laurence Olivier, Ralph Fiennes, and Tom Hardy have all played Heathcliff before him. Still, he wanted to bring something of himself to it, to make the role his own.

Landing the part was a win for Elordi in another way: he’d always wanted to work with Robbie. “She’s always been on my list of the greats,” he said, “and she was. As a human being and as an artist, she’s the true package.”

Funny enough, Robbie and Fennell have been circling each other professionally for years. LuckyChap backed both ‘Promising Young Woman’ and ‘Saltburn’, and Fennell had a cameo in ‘Barbie’. But they’d never teamed up as actor and director until now. After reading Fennell’s script for ‘Wuthering Heights’, Robbie threw her hat in the ring for Cathy. “I would follow her anywhere,” Robbie said of Fennell. “Working with directors you’d follow anywhere — that’s what it’s all about. Find those people, and just go with them.”Get the latest entertainment updates from the Times of India, along with the latest Hindi movies, upcoming Hindi movies in 2026 , and Telugu movies.”