‘There’s an enormous amount of sado-masochism in this book’: Emerald Fennell defends her Wuthering Heights adaptation

At the Brontë Women’s Writing festival, the Saltburn director explained her decision to cast Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in her sex-charged retelling of Emily Brontë’s novel

Emerald Fennell has revealed details about her “primal, sexual” adaptation of Wuthering Heights, following controversy over the film’s casting choices, erotic trailer and “aggressively provocative” screen tests.

Speaking publicly about the film for the first time at Brontë Women’s Writing festival over the weekend, the Oscar-winning Saltburn director said Emily Brontë’s twisted classic “cracked me open” after reading it at 14 years old.

“I’ve been obsessed. I’ve been driven mad by this book,” she said. “I know that if somebody else made it, I’d be furious. It’s very personal material for everyone. It’s very illicit. The way we relate to the characters is very private.”

Fennell said her first adolescent experience of the novel inspired her approach to the sex-charged retelling of Catherine Earnshaw and orphan Heathcliff’s relationship, set on the moors of 18th-century Yorkshire. “It’s an emotional response to something. It’s primal, sexual,” she said.