Emerald Fennell explains significant changes in "Wuthering Heights" and why some characters were cut

Emerald Fennell is fully aware that her interpretation of Wuthering Heights deviates considerably from Emily Brontë's 1847 novel. The Oscar-winning Promising Young Woman director, who initially fell in love with the gothic classic as a teenager, told Entertainment Weekly that she started making the script by challenging herself to recall as much of the tale as she could.

Fennell admits, “It was funny, you know, I think the things that I remembered were both real and not real. So there was a certain amount of wish fulfillment in there, and there were whole characters that I'd sort of forgotten or consolidated.” Her aim was always to design a personal reaction to the novel, rather than a strict replication.

Emerald Fennell’s Unique Interpretation of Brontë’s Classic

“I wanted to make something that was my response and interpretation to that book and to the feeling of it,” Fennell states, emphasizing that her adaptation is not solely centered on Cathy (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff's (Jacob Elordi) star-crossed bond. “When you look at not just other movie adaptations of this, but Kate Bush's song, or Balthus' lithographs, or a lot of the kind of contemporary illustrations, most of them tend to focus on Cathy and Heathcliff. Because I think that's really the moment that draws to an end in the book.”

Focusing on the First Half of the Novel

Fennell’s movie highlights the early part of the story, focusing on Cathy and Heathcliff’s turbulent romance. She describes that this needed “hard decisions” in regard to which extra characters and events to include. “And I think, really, I would do a mini series and encompass the whole thing over 10 hours, and it would be beautiful. But if you're making a movie, and you've got to be fairly tight, you've got to make those kinds of hard decisions.”

Why Certain Characters Were Cut or Merged in Fennell’s Wuthering Heights

To condense the narration, many characters were reduced or removed completely. Mr. Lockwood, Heathcliff’s nosy neighbor, and Hindley, Cathy and Heathcliff’s jealous brother, were among those impacted. “Hindley still exists, I believe, but in the form of Earnshaw,” Fennell states, referring to the father figure featured by Martin Clunes. “I tried to, wherever I could, gather people together in the same way that we don't have Lockwood, either. It's such a complicated structure, the novel, that really it would have been very, very difficult to turn that into a coherent movie because it would just be much more time.”

Expanding Mr. Earnshaw’s Role

Fennell offered Mr. Earnshaw is a more prominent presence, showcasing him as a complex, alcoholic character whose behavior deeply affects those around him. “It was [about] taking, ‘What is it about Hindley? What is it about his relationship with his sister and his half-brother, I suppose, in Heathcliff? And how does it shape their lives? How did the love of their father shape their lives?’” she describes. “And so what we have instead is a character who is both, who is like, I think, a lot of people who know alcoholics… extremely, deeply loving and charismatic, and on the other hand, extremely abusive and cruel.”

What are the Structural Changes to the Ending

Fennell also changed the ending of the story. In her version, Cathy loses her child with Edgar (Shazad Latif) and does not reunite with Heathcliff before her passing as in the book. Instead, she talks to him in a fever-induced fugue state. Fennell explains this as “partly structural” and a way to feature how the doomed pair cannot align. “There are about three different meetings and three different speeches, and so part of it was consolidating that. But also, we talk a lot about Romeo and Juliet and, obviously, when we meet Isabella, she's talking about that kind of story and about that missed thing, and I feel so much that Cathy and Heathcliff's [romance] was about missing each other. And so what I did was I brought a lot of the love forward, and a lot of those really important conversations forward, to give them some time so that it didn't just happen at the end.”

FAQs:

Q1. Who directed the latest Wuthering Heights film?
Emerald Fennell, popular for Promising Young Woman, directed the adaptation. She brought her own interpretation to the classic gothic romance.

Q2. How closely does the film follow Emily Brontë’s novel?
The film diverges from the book in several ways, concentrating primarily on the first half of the story. Certain characters were removed or merged, and the ending was changed.