Wuthering Heights director Emerald Fennell has revealed her motivations for casting Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, despite accusations of 'white-washing' the character.
We're just under two weeks away from seeing the Saltburn director's take on the classic Emily Brontë novel, which is shaping up to be a very steamy affair.
The film stars Elordi as Heathcliff, the book's famous anti-hero, while Margot Robbie takes on the role of Catherine Earnshaw, with the pair's obsessive relationship being the driving force of the story.
Elordi's casting as Heathcliff has proven to be a controversial one. In the 1847 book, Heathcliff is depicted as being a non-white character, described as a 'dark-skinned gypsy' and 'Lascar', which is a term used to describe sailors from the Indian subcontinent, South-east Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
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The Earnshaw family also finds the character at the docks in Liverpool, a port which had previously played a large role in Britain's slave trade.
While his exact origins are left ambiguous - many have since argued the character to be Romani, mixed-race, South Asian or Black - he is clearly not meant to be white.
His heritage and backstory are also crucial to the novel, with the other characters' racist and classist views towards Heathcliff serving as a primary motivator for his vengeful actions.
This explains the level of discourse around the casting of the Euphoria actor, who is a white Australian with Basque ancestry.
However, one person who doesn't see the casting choice to be controversial is Fennell, who previously explained that she'd been inspired to cast the 28-year-old while working with him in Saltburn.
Recalling the decision during an appearance at the Brontë Women's Writing Festival last September, the Promising Young Woman director revealed that she'd chosen Elordi as he resembled an illustration she'd seen of Heathcliff in a book.
"[He] looked exactly like the illustration of Heathcliff on the first book that I read," the 40-year-old explained, recalling that she'd wanted to 'scream' after noticing the resemblance.
"Not the professional thing to do, obviously," she added.
Going on to reveal that she knew him to be her version of Heathcliff from that moment, Fennell added: "I had been thinking about making [Wuthering Heights], and it seemed to me he had the thing… he’s a very surprising actor."
Fennell has since doubled down on her decision to cast Elordi in more recent interviews, telling The Hollywood Reporter that she'd wanted to focus on the 'sado-masochistic elements' of the book.
She has also been keen to stress that her take on Wuthering Heights is more of an inspiration than a faithful adaptation of the source material.
"I can't say I'm making Wuthering Heights. It's not possible. What I can say is I'm making a version of it," she previously told Fandango.
"There's a version that I remembered reading that isn't quite real. And there's a version where I wanted stuff to happen that never happened.
"And so it is 'Wuthering Heights', and it isn't."
Make of that what you will.
Topics: Film, Books, Jacob Elordi, Margot Robbie
Brenna Cooper