Actress Margot Robbie was not only seen as Barbie in the cinema last year, but was also part of the production team of the film Saltburn. Its star Jacob Elordi, who is also known from the series Euphoria, is now set to star with her in a new film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s literary classic Wuthering Heights (originally: Wuthering Heights) will star in the film. The film will be directed by Saltburn director Emerald Fennell.
But there are now objections to Elordi’s casting, as Deadline reports. He is supposed to play the male lead, Heathcliff. But is that still appropriate?
Backlash against casting in the new Margot Robbie film: Why is Jacob Elordi not suitable for the role in Wuthering Heights?
Wuthering Heights from 1847 is the only novel by the Brontë sister Emily and is considered Victorian literary classicwhich deals with unhappy love, social status and revenge in the late 18th century. The central theme is the love affair between the young Catherine “Cathy” Earnshaw (Robbie’s role) and the foundling Heathcliff (Elordi), adopted by the Earnshaw family from the Wuthering Heights estate in the moors of northern England.
Heathcliff has to reinvent himself in order to be accepted and is considered an example of the so-called Byronic Hero – an attractive anti-hero as found in the works of Lord Byron. However, the text describes him as “dark-skinned”which is not exactly tailored to the pale Saltburn star. “Whitewashing” is the key word.
Wuthering Whites: The many far too white adaptations of Wuthering Heights
Heathcliff as a person of color has been overlooked in almost all Wuthering Heights adaptations of the past (Tom Hardy played the novel’s hero in a 2009 series version, for example). However, since the questionable casting, fans and others alike have said that this is no longer appropriate today. Especially since the racism experienced by Heathcliff in England’s class society is certainly a theme in the novel and shapes his character.
Brontë expert Michael Stewart, for example, commented in the Daily Telegraph (via Deadline):
In the case of Wuthering Heights, white actors played the more ethnically ambivalent character for many years… But things are different now, the way how we represent certain people in art and culturebrings with it a responsibility today that did not exist 20 years ago.
The only adaptation to date that features a young Cathy (Kaya Scodelario) and a PoC Heathcliff (James Howson) is Wuthering Heights (2011) by director Andrea Arnold. And there have been over 30 adaptations of the famous material, famously sung about by Kate Bush, as films, series and TV films.
Fennell’s new film version, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as Cathy and Heathcliff, is still in pre-production and is currently scheduled to be 2025 in Great Britain be rotated.