What you need to know
Emerald Fennell knows how to be provocative.
In an interview with Variety on Wednesday, January 28, the 40-year-old writer and director of 2023’s Saltburn and the upcoming Wuthering Heights opened up about what his first hot “visual” was for the film after that infamous bathtub scene.
“It was a similar movie,” Fennell said in a red carpet interview at the world premiere of the film adaptation of Emily Bronte’s 1847 novel, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.
She added: “I can’t give you any spoilers, but something happens on the rocks.” Before the conversation was over, Fennell teased, “I think people get it.”
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In the much talked about Saltburn scene, Oliver, played by Barry Keoghan, watches Felix, played by Elordi, while he takes a night bath. After witnessing an intimate moment between his friends, Oliver drinks the leftover hot water that flows down the drain after Felix leaves.
Fennell spoke about the moment to PEOPLE in November 2023, calling it “the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen in my life…and I just want to say it’s okay for anyone else to feel that.”
“I’m interested in how it makes you feel. Did you feel something in a movie that you’ve never felt before? And if so, that movie was effective and it worked. That’s what we wanted to do,” the Oscar winner continued.
Additionally, she stated that it was her intention to elicit certain emotions while telling the story of Oliver’s obsession with Felix when Oliver stayed with Felix and his wealthy family in the summer of 2007.
“We wanted to express the emotion of locust love: impossible, flesh-eating, eternal, impossible vampire love. I think that’s what we did, and I think everyone who made this movie did the most incredible job,” she added.
Three years later, that sexiness has carried over into one of Fennell’s latest projects, which Robbie, 35, explains on Jimmy Kimmel Live! She told how a group of her friends celebrated her role by hosting their own screening and a Wuthering Heights-themed bachelorette party with a “Victorian slut” theme.
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“At first I thought it was a joke…I was like, ‘Wait, are you really going to create a fake Bachelorette for a fictional character?’ And they were like, ‘Yes, absolutely,'” the Barbie actress said on the Monday, Jan. 26 episode of the late-night talk show.
“There was a mood board. I was wearing a white corset and lace outfit, and they were all dressed like gangster wives with black lace and corsets,” Robbie recalled.
Later in the conversation, she also joked about her friend’s obsession with Elordi and how he “missed most of the movie” because of it.
“Honestly, I thought if he came in now, they would eat him. So it was safer for him not to be there,” she joked.
“Wuthering Heights” will be released in theaters on February 13th.
