In July of 2024, when it was announced that filmmaker Emerald Fennell would be writing and directing an adaptation of Emily Brontë’s novel “Wuthering Heights,” I was immediately nervous. As a Brontë sisters enthusiast, fan of the novel and someone with a healthy distaste for Emerald Fennell’s previous work (such as her 2023 film “Saltburn”), I was doubtful that her decisions for an adaptation would be decisions that I would agree with. Emerald Fennell, whose overstylized and sensationalist films have often been criticized for delivering flashy yet surface-level explorations of serious sociopolitical topics like race, sexual violence, and socioeconomic class, was not someone who I felt had the depth to adapt “Wuthering Heights” in a way that maintained the difficult themes of the original novel.
My fears, and the fears of many others, were confirmed earlier this month when the release of the teaser trailer for the film was met with controversy. The trailer, set to an orchestral remix of Charli XCX’s 2024 song “Everything is romantic” (featuring Caroline Polachek), is mostly a compilation of decontextualized shots from the film, including shots of a shirtless Heathcliff (played by Jacob Elordi), fireplaces and candles, the lacing of corsets, Cathy (played by Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff embracing, and seductive shots of food preparation. The trailer exhibits the film’s vibrant and showy visual aesthetic, throughlined with vibrant red costumes and set pieces, like an intensely red cloak against a snowy background, or a hallway with crimson floor starkly set against white walls. For those unfamiliar with “Wuthering Heights” and its themes, the trailer makes the story appear to be nothing more than an erotic period-piece about forbidden love and desire, which couldn’t be further from the true essence of the novel.
Brontë’s 1847 novel, controversial and shocking for its time, follows the story of the wealthy Earnshaw family through multiple generations, mostly focusing on the characters of Catherine “Cathy” Earnshaw and Heathcliff. Cathy and Heathcliff, although in love with each other, have a torrid and often abusive relationship that worsens as Heathcliff grows from a young orphan who falls victim to racist abuse to a vengeful and cruel adult who exerts abuse on the Earnshaw descendants. Despite the book’s focus on difficult themes and its demonstration of the generational cycle of abuse, the cinematic history of “Wuthering Heights” has unfortunately romanticized and whitewashed the story, with adaptations focusing on the love between Catherine and Heathcliff and ignoring the commentary on racism and abuse that defines the novel.
Heathcliff, who in the novel is described as “dark-skinned” and who is often called racial slurs by other characters, has only been played by a man of color twice in filmic adaptations. Heathcliff has been played by a long string of white actors starting in the silent film era, when he was played by Milton Rosmer in 1920, soon followed by Laurence Olivier (1939), Timothy Dalton (1970), Ralph Fiennes (1992), Robert Cavanah (1998), and Tom Hardy (2009). A 2011 adaptation, where he was played by Black actor James Howson, remains one of the only adaptations to have a man of color cast as Heathcliff (The other is a 1954 Mexican adaptation renamed “Abismos de Pasion” where Heathcliff was renamed Alejandro and played by Spanish actor Jorge Mistral.) For Heathcliff, whose racial identity makes him subject to horrific abuse, his race is important to his character and erasing this in favor of white actors is a disservice to Bronte’s novel which seeks to demonstrate the damage of racial abuse.
These adaptations, which continued the whitewashing of Heathcliff, also continued its romanticization, depicting Cathy and Heathcliff as forbidden lovers and emphasizing the romantic aspects of the story. Heathcliff is often depicted as an obsessed and brooding lover, whose role as an outsider is limited to his socioeconomic status and not his racial identity. He is depicted in a sympathetic light, with the story focusing more on Heathcliff and Cathy’s relationship and ignoring the later generations of the Earnshaw family, who, in the novel, serve as a beacon of hope for breaking familial cycles of abuse. Posters for the film often depicted Heathcliff and Cathy embracing one another alongside taglines like “A Story of Vengeful Thwarted Love,” (1939) and “The power, the passion, the terror of Emily Bronte’s unforgettable love story” (1970).
Fennell’s adaptation of “Wuthering Heights” comes at a time when racial diversity, although still a topic of controversy, is becoming a long-withheld and much-deserved standard in film. Because of this, her adaptation had a chance to break the long tradition of cinematic romanticizing and white-washing of “Wuthering Heights” by casting a man of color to play Heathcliff and to step away from the perception of the novel as a love story. And although her version is still months away from being released, its trailer offers us insight into what approach she is taking in her adaptation. Unfortunately, that approach appears to be nothing more than a continuation of the cinematic misinterpretation of Brontë’s work.
The trailer’s tone and focus, along with the casting of Jacob Elordi to play yet another white version of Heathcliff, show that Fennell’s approach to the film, much like the adaptations of the past, is focused more on the romance and erotics of the story than the novel’s other prominent themes like race and trauma. From revealing shots of both Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff and Margot Robbie’s Cathy, the intense presence of red costumes and set elements, the film’s release being set for Valentine’s Day, its tagline “Come Undone,” Elordi’s whispered sweet nothings, and Charli XCX’s repeated chant of “fall in love again and again,” the trailer paints a picture of “Wuthering Heights” that insists upon romanticism. Although the film’s R rating and sexual content might lead some to believe that this is a groundbreaking and unique take on Brontë’s novel, a closer look reveals that Fennel’s “Wuthering Heights” is just a regurgitation of past cinematic adaptations that completely misrepresent Brontë’s novel.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.