Jacob Elordi has joked about joining the Method to play Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, only to fall victim to a freak accident in which he was forced to physically push himself to get into the role. The film’s make-up artist, Sian Miller, told Esquire magazine that she “designed the whipping scar on Heathcliff’s back,” and sarcastically challenged Elordi to follow the method: “If Daniel Day-Lewis had played Heathcliff, he would have come on set with a scar.”
“I said, ‘I’m going to go out this weekend and hurt myself to prove I’m Heathcliff!'” Elordi retorted jokingly. “When I got home that night, the house I was staying in had a steam shower. It was a brass knob that let steam come out of the wall.”
Elordi explained, “The detailed story is that when I was working on ‘Frankenstein,’ I always had a lot of makeup on my fingers and feet, and it was a pain to take it all off, so I kept it on all the time during filming.I played the role of Heathcliff, and I was covered in scabies and dirt, and I thought, “I’m not going to do that anymore. I’m going to clean my feet every night and come to work refreshed the next day.” So I decided to clean my legs, leaned back, my back burned into the steam knob, and stood up screaming. It tore my back up. When I went to work on Monday, I suffered second degree burns. ”
“Wuthering Heights” director Emerald Fennell remembers receiving a text message “during the first week of filming” that “Jacob was in the hospital.”
“Obviously, I thought, ‘Oh my god, he was in a car accident,’ and then he was like, ‘I burned my back in the shower,'” the filmmaker said, adding that he eventually asked Elordi if the injury was due to “the spirit of Daniel Day-Lewis.”
“That was the real Daniel Day-Lewis. In the shower,” Elordi joked.
Day-Lewis has been notoriously synonymous with method acting throughout his career, and lately he’s been frustrated. While promoting Anemone last year, the three-time Oscar winner said that criticism surrounding method acting often comes from people who simply don’t understand it.
“The latest commentary on method acting over the last few years has always been from people who have little or no understanding of what it actually means. It’s almost like some kind of dubious science or cult that we’re involved in,” Day-Lewis said. “But it’s just a way to free yourself, and when you’re working with your colleagues in front of the camera, it gives you the spontaneity of being free to react in any way you want in the moment.”
Day-Lewis went on to explain that practicing the Method does not mean being “locked away from experiencing” your own real life, but rather “entering into your own self-contained experience.” “But really, if you’ve done your job, you should be free to accept whatever passes through you,” he continued.
“Wuthering Heights” will be released in theaters on February 13th by Warner Bros. To read Elordi’s full interview, visit Esquire’s website.
