Margot Robbie: Wuthering Heights is Like a Fever Dream

It is a bold interpretation of one of the greatest love stories of all time. Emerald Fennell loves the book template and now so do I.

The novel has been made into a film many times. I think Emerald wanted to bring to screen the feeling she had when she first read the book when she was fourteen. To give the audience a very emotional, visceral experience. I think that’s where Emerald’s superpower lies. The resulting image is very emotional and romantic.

I had never read the draft of the novel before, and I deliberately did not reach for it when I received the script. I wanted to approach it as a blank slate so that I didn’t have any specific ideas beforehand.

Emerald’s creative style, whether she is writing a story of love or revenge, is captivating and well-structured. As an author, she is very disciplined when it comes to plot building and character development. When reading her adaptation, you get the impression that you are falling into a fever dream and letting yourself be completely absorbed by it. I couldn’t put the script down, I cried over it and after reading it I kept coming back to it.

As soon as I felt that I already had the movie etched in my memory, I finally read the book as well. She has such magical powers. It strikes me as a room that, when you walk out of it and re-enter it, is quite different on the second visit. In short, I experienced the novel differently during each reading.

Emerald’s version feels more modern, and not only because of the older age of the protagonists. Cathy is in her late teens in the book, while she is in her early twenties at the start of our film.

As a contemporary element of the film, I mainly perceive the social pressure on marriage that my character faces. When she finally succumbs to him and marries Edgar Linton, it turns out to be the biggest mistake of her life, as she actually loves Heathcliff.

Emerald’s characters are more mature and their behavior cannot be dismissed as children who do not know what they are doing. Cathy makes bad decisions that hurt others, and Emerald forces her to take more responsibility.

They don’t, they can’t compromise. All of them make mistakes and do strange things, which often have unpleasant consequences. No one is influenced by circumstances, on the contrary, they are the ones who determine them. That’s what I loved most about Cathy’s portrayal.

I think Emerald took the most essential thing about Cathy and Heathcliff out of the literary template. She edited some of the secondary characters as required by the script.

The question of Wuthering Heights is that we are still reading it, watching its adaptations, dissecting it and, in short, obsessing over it almost two centuries later, often occurred to me while working on the film. But I don’t have an answer to it.

It could be that the story is about complex characters that you root for to figure it all out. Their love affair is complicated, demanding, yet so clear. As a reader, you can’t tear yourself away from him. I think Emerald succeeded in impressing this on the film, which strongly draws you into the plot.

I think they will be surprised. People probably expect a traditional period film, which our Wuthering Heights is definitely not. In my opinion, some imagine something very spicy and provocative, and such a film really is in places. At the core, however, is an intense romance that will touch you deeply.

And then there’s the film’s stunning visuals, camerawork, sets and costumes. Those who see these images on the big screen will think about them for a long time.

Novinky.cz and Právo obtained an exclusive interview for the Czech market from Warner Bros. Pictures.