Emerald Fennell first spoke about the already controversial film adaptation of Emily Bronte’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights.
At a panel at the Bronte Women’s Writing Festival in England on Friday, directors of “Saltburn” and “Promising Young Women” said she wanted a film — as Cathy and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliffe, telling her that she was the first teenager to read the book.
“I wanted to create something that made me feel like I first read it, meaning it’s an emotional response to something,” Fennell said, according to the BBC. “It’s major, sexual.”
The first trailer for “Wuthering Heights,” released earlier this month, certainly portrayed it. A shot of pan sweats on Erorudi’s back, and all body slipping with fingers placed in the fish’s mouth. The teaser continued to encourage passionate discussions about the film.
But Fennell said, “There’s a huge amount of sadomazochism in this book. There’s a reason why people were deeply shocked by it (when it was published).”
She said, “It was kind of a masochistic exercise I’m working on because I love it so much. It can’t love me. It was annoying, but I think it’s really useful.”
Fennell said he recognizes the “huge responsibility” of adapting the book. This was screened several times earlier in the 1992 version, starring Juliet Binoche and Ralph Fiens.
“I know I’ll be furious if someone else makes it,” she continued. “It’s very personal material for everyone. It’s very illegal. I think the way we interact with the characters is very private.”
She took some freedom elsewhere, but Fennell, who also wrote the film’s script, claimed to have retained many of Bronte’s original dialogue.
“Her dialogue is the best dialogue ever, so I really decided to save her dialogue as much as I can (as possible),” she said. “I couldn’t make it better, and who could?”
Beyond the obvious eroticism of the film, Fennel faces some heat to cast Robbie and Erorudi. Cathy is a teenager in the book, Robbie is 35 years old, and Heathcliff is said to have “dark skin” even though Erorudi is not.
However, Fennell was enthusiastic about casting choices between the panels, telling the crowd that when he met him on the set of “Saltburn,” he knew Erorudi was her Heathcliff.
Erorudi “seemed exactly like the Heathcliff illustration in the first book I read,” Fennell said. “And it was so bad because I wanted to scream. Obviously it’s not something to do.”
She said, “I was thinking about making (“wuthering highths”).
Of the Robbie, the director said, “It’s not like the people I’ve ever met – I think I felt that with Cathy,” adding that the “Barbie” star is “so beautiful, funny and amazing, and she’s the type of person who can get away with anything, like Cathy.”
“To be honest, I think she can commit murders and no one will care. And that’s who Cathy is for me. “So she wasn’t an incredible actress and needed someone like Margot, the star, but someone with power, otherworldly power, divine power means people lose their hearts.”
“Wuthering Heights” will be released in theaters on February 14th.
