Emerald Fennell Explains Why She Cast Jacob Elordi And Margot Robbie In Wuthering Heights Amid Backlash

Emerald Fennell has explained how she came to cast Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as the leads in her new Wuthering Heights movie.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker has faced some criticism in the last year over the actors she chose to portray Catherine and Heathcliff in her much-hyped film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic gothic novel.

Many have questioned whether Margot, who turned 35 earlier this year, was the right choice for Catherine, given the character is in her late teens for much of the main story, while others have accused the film of “whitewashing” the character of Heathcliff, who is described in the book as being “dark-skinned”.

While his ethnicity is never specified in the source material, it’s been pointed out by fans that Heathcliff is subjected to racism by other characters in the book, particularly as a younger man, so the Euphoria actor’s casting in the role has been a controversial one.

Per BBC News, Emerald opened up about her reasons for casting Margot and Jacob while speaking at the Brontë family home over the weekend.

Jacob Elordi
Jacob Elordi

via Associated Press

Emerald explained that the idea for Jacob to play Heathcliff occurred to her when they were working together on her most recent film, Saltburn.

“He looked exactly like the illustration of Heathcliff on the first book that I read,” Emerald recalled. “And it was so awful because I so wanted to scream. Not the professional thing to do, obviously.

“I had been thinking about making [a film version of Wuthering Heights], and it seemed to me he had the thing… he’s a very surprising actor.”

As for Margot, Emerald noted that she’s “not like anyone I’ve ever met – ever”, which is the same way she felt about the character when she first read Wuthering Heights.

“[Margot is] so beautiful and interesting and surprising, and she is the type of person who, like Cathy, could get away with anything,” the Promising Young Woman director said. “I think honestly she could commit a killing spree and nobody would mind. And that is who Cathy is to me. Cathy is somebody who just pushes to see how far she can go.

“So it needed somebody like Margot, who’s a star, not just an incredible actress – which she is – but somebody who has a power, an otherworldly power, a Godlike power, that means people lose their minds.”

Margot Robbie
Margot Robbie

via Associated Press

While Emerald and Jacob first worked together on Saltburn, she and Margot have also collaborated numerous times.

Margot was an executive producer on both Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, while Emerald made a brief appearance in the 2023 movie Barbie as Midge, a friend of Margot’s doll character.

Preview screenings of Wuthering Heights were reported to have first taken place earlier this year – with audiences having a big reaction to some of the artistic choices Emerald has made with her latest film.

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Gal Gadot Shares How She Really Feels About Being Margot Robbie’s First Pick To Play Barbie

Margot Robbie’s role in Barbie has resonated with millions of fans of the beloved Mattel doll, but the film nearly got a different leading lady: Gal Gadot.

The Australian actor, who was also a producer on the record-breaking movie, first revealed to Vogue back in May ahead of its release, that she and director Greta Gerwig first looked to the Wonder Woman actor to take on the role of Stereotypical Barbie.

But Gal wasn’t available to film at the time.

Gal has since responded to being Margot’s front-runner to play the pink-powered icon. The Israeli actor gushed that she was flattered to be offered the role of the eponymous doll despite not taking it.

“I adore Margot,” Gal recently told Flaunt magazine in an interview that was held before the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.

“Margot is one of those women who you just want to be friends with. She is so funny, warm, fun and smart and obviously so talented. She brings so much to the table. I would love to do anything with Margot and was very touched [by her comments].”

Margot Robbie
Margot Robbie

Karwai Tang via Getty Images

The Heart Of Stone actor added: “She warmed my heart with everything that she said about me. I’m super excited for them, and I’m so excited for Barbie.”

Gal isn’t the only star that Margot and Greta tried to tap to join the massively successful film.

The filmmaker told CinemaBlend before the film hit cinemas that she also tried to get her Lady Bird and Little Women actors Saorise Ronan and Timothée Chalamet to cameo in the movie, but things didn’t quite pan out.

“It was going to be a specialty cameo,” she revealed to the outlet. “I was also going to do a specialty cameo with Timmy. Both of them couldn’t do it and I was so annoyed. But I love them so much. But it felt like doing something without my children. I mean, I’m not their mom, but I sort of feel like their mom.”

With Barbie recently joining the $1 billion club, rumours began flying about a possible sequel, which means Gal might have a chance to visit Barbie Land after all.

Greta further ignited sequel rumors after she told People she hopes the movie “is the launch of a world and a bunch of different Barbie movies.”

“There’s a tone and a humour and a joy, and obviously the world is so beautiful,” the filmmaker added. “I want to go back to Barbie Land.”

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We Can Finally Answer The Question Everyone’s Asking – Does The Barbie Movie Live Up To The Hype?

If you’ve watched TV, gone online or even just ventured outside your home lately, it can’t have escaped your attention that Greta Gerwig’s long-awaited Barbie film is finally almost here.

The hype has been building ever since we caught our first glimpse of Margot Robbie in character as the iconic doll, but things ramped up when the first meme-ready trailer dropped in the spring, followed by a marketing campaign that dominated social media.

After that came the star-studded soundtrack, a seemingly-never-ending line of tie-in merchandise and a glittering press tour that has made Margot and Ryan Gosling pretty much unavoidable for the last few weeks (until, of course, the whole thing was brought to an abrupt halt by that whole SAG-AFTRA strike debacle).

As a result, the film has undoubtedly become the most talked-about of 2023, and while we’re happy to hold up our hands and say we’ve been as swept up in the pink tornado as much as anyone… it’s also been hard to ignore that tiny voice in the back of our heads that just kept on questioning: “Can the Barbie film – or, indeed, any film – actually live up to all this hype?”.

Well, we’re pleased to report that it can. Not only is Barbie an effective dose of candy-coloured escapism, and one of the funniest new comedies to come out in recent history, it’s also genuinely thought-provoking and, at times, quite devastating. What a relief.

Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as seen on the poster for Barbie
Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as seen on the poster for Barbie

Warner Bros

In case you’re one of those who hasn’t spent the last three months watching the Barbie trailer at least once a day (we can’t be the only ones, right?), the film centres around the titular doll, played by Margot, who spends her days in Barbie Land hanging out with her Barbie pals, having Barbie dance parties and generally living her best Barbie life. Until she’s not.

From nowhere, things quickly start to unravel in her life. Her unnaturally-arched Barbie feet suddenly hit the floor, her perfect routine is thrown out of whack and, oh yeah, she starts to be consumed by thoughts of impending death. Fun!

Guided by the oracle “Weird Barbie” (and accompanied, begrudgingly, by her always-eager right-hand man Ken), Margot’s character ventures to the “Real World” to help set things right, where she discovers she and her Barbie pals haven’t quite impacted society for the better in the way they’d hoped.

It also turns out to be an eye-opening experience for Ken, who – after a lifetime in Barbie’s shadow – begins to flourish in his new surroundings, with genuinely unsettling results.

Ryan Gosling in character as Ken
Ryan Gosling in character as Ken

Warner Bros./Jaap Buitendijk

This is just one of the areas the Barbie movie managed to surprise us. Our biggest worry heading into the film was that a lot of the plot may have already been given away in the trailer. While admittedly much of the first act plays out like an extended version of the teaser, with a few clever gags added in , there were still plenty of satisfying twists ahead – particularly involving Ryan’s Ken and Rhea Perlman’s mysterious character – that we’re happy were kept under wraps until now.

It’s hard to play favourites among the cast, but we have to shout out Margot for her stand-out performance, helping us root for a character who could so easily have become one-dimensional or even irritating in the wrong hands.

Much has been made of Ryan’s performance as Ken, and he deserves it, taking the character to places we truly didn’t expect, and supporting players Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, America Ferrera and Will Ferrell all deserved to be singled out for praise, too.

But it has to be said, the true star of the show is Greta Gerwig, who directed and co-wrote Barbie. The three-time Oscar nominee created a film that’s visually stunning and so jam-packed with fun details and Easter eggs that the only way to spot them all would be through repeated viewing.

She’s also gifted film fans with a script that manages to be both laugh-out-loud silly and heart-breaking – often within the same scene – and it’s pretty much guaranteed to be a quote-along sleepover go-to for Generation Alpha, akin to Clueless, Mean Girls and Easy A before it.

Ken and Barbie prepare to take a journey to the "Real World"
Ken and Barbie prepare to take a journey to the “Real World”

Warner Bros

The filmmaker mostly manages to toe the line between irreverence and outright disrespect, sending up Barbie and pointing out its critiques without turning the whole thing into a hatchet job. She also makes it clear that there’s room for all viewpoints on the brand – love, hate, apathy – in her Barbie Land.

Of course, a Mattel-endorsed Barbie movie is still a Mattel-endorsed Barbie movie, and even the teenager who at one point brands the character a “fascist” who’s responsible for “setting the feminist movement back 50 years”, glorifying capitalism and “destroying the planet” is won over by her in the end.

Still, to anyone nervous about Barbie living up to expectations, take a sigh of relief, gather up your Barbie pals and get ready for some big laughs. Life in plastic, we’re relieved to say, is every bit as fantastic as Aqua promised all those years ago.

Barbie is in cinemas from 21 July. Watch the trailer below:

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