Primal and sexual: Wuthering Heights director on bringing Brontë to life

Emerald Fennell, the director of the highly anticipated new film version of Wuthering Heights, said her aim is to capture the primal pull she felt when she first read the Brontës as a teenager. Speaking in Haworth, West Yorkshire, during the Brontë Women’s Writing Festival, Fennell described the project as an emotional response she hopes will feel primal and sexual. The film stars Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, and a recently released trailer has intensified debate about the adaptation ahead of its release on February 14 next year.

Fennell said she has had a profound connection to the book since she first read it at 14, when it cracked her open. She described the work as difficult and complicated, unlike anything else, and said it is completely singular, noting the text’s sensual and devastating charge. She added that the film aims to recreate the emotional experience she had at 14, even if that means filling in gaps she remembered from childhood. The trailer offers a heightened, stylised gothic vision with sustained tension and striking imagery, including scenes of bread being kneaded and a moment where a finger appears inside a fish’s mouth, underscoring the film’s provocative tone.

Fennell said she has been obsessed with the book for years and that making the film is at once a personal dream and a considerable responsibility. She described the project as a form of masochistic pursuit, given how much the book means to readers and how carefully she must tread with their expectations. She has thought about the project for two years and is only now able to pursue it with the freedom she gained after her recent work.

On casting, Fennell acknowledged that Margot Robbie’s age relative to Cathy’s teenage depiction has drawn attention. She also described Elordi as Heathcliff after seeing him on the set of Saltburn, saying he bore the look of the illustration she had first seen. Robbie, who is Australian, brings star power and an otherworldly presence that could allow the character to push boundaries. Fennell said Robbie could get away with anything, and she suggested Elordi possessed the required mix of intensity and allure for Heathcliff.

The decision to cast Robbie drew attention, given Cathy’s youth in the book and the novel’s nuanced portrayal of Heathcliff as dark-skinned in Brontë’s description. Fennell emphasized that Robbie’s presence is more than a matter of age; it reflects a broader sense of threat and magnetism she wanted for Cathy, a character who can push boundaries and invite mixed reactions from viewers.

Robbie’s involvement comes with a sense of personal risk and responsibility. Fennell said the choice of Robbie was about more than age; it was about finding someone who could embody a commanding, transformative air that makes the drama feel inevitable. For its part, the casting signals a bold approach by the filmmaker, given the material’s notoriety and Brontë’s status in literary history.

Despite taking some liberties, Fennell said she intends to preserve much of Brontë’s original dialogue, arguing that the author’s lines are among the best in English literature. She noted she is careful not to replace what Brontë wrote but to refract it through a contemporary lens while keeping the text intact where possible. The film is scheduled to reach cinemas on February 14 next year, matching a Valentine’s Day release that could heighten its cultural conversation.

The project has generated fevered anticipation, in part due to the juxtaposition of a familiar Gothic tragedy with Fennell’s distinctive, provocative storytelling voice. The newly released trailer has sparked discussions about tone, representation and fidelity, as audiences await a version she says aims to be both faithful and startling.