New 'Wuthering Heights' film casting sparks backlash, accusations of whitewashing

A new "Wuthering Heights" film is drawing withering criticism for its reported casting picks.

Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi will star as Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, respectively, in an adaptation of the classic novel directed by Emerald Fennell, Deadline, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter reported on Monday.

But the news quickly sparked backlash on social media. Fans took particular issue with the casting of Elordi as Heathcliff, who is described at one point in the original 1847 novel as "dark-skinned."

USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Robbie, Elordi and Fennell.

"emerald fennell you are not seeing the pearly gates," read one X post, which contrasted the "dark-skinned" description of Heathcliff in the book with a photo of Elordi.

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"Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights is explicitly dark skin and Romani, and his experiences as a man of color influence his entire character and story as a man suffering racist abuse from his adoptive family," another post said.

"so what we've learned is that emerald fennell has not read wuthering heights," an X user concluded in response to Elordi's reported casting.

Margot Robbienever thought she'd have 'empathy for a doll.' Then she made 'Barbie.'

Previous adaptations of "Wuthering Heights" have also cast white actors, including Tom Hardy and Ralph Fiennes, as Heathcliff. One exception is a 2011 film from Andrea Arnold, which cast a Black actor, James Howson, in the role. At the time, The Guardian reported he would be the first Black actor to play the character on film.

"In the book it was clear he wasn't white-skinned," Arnold told NPR in a 2012 interview.

The director pointed to a line from the novel — 'Who knows but your father was Emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen.' — as evidence that the character is not white in an interview with IndieWire.

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"That's not being said about somebody who's from Yorkshire," she told the outlet in 2012. "When he first arrives, he speaks a language they can't understand. Hollywood started making this film a long time ago, and it's actually surprising to me that no one has done it before. There was a massive slave port in Liverpool at that time. It's possible that Heathcliff could have been the son of a slave or had come off one of the ships. It's possible."

In light of the new movie's reported casting, some fans pointed to this previous adaptation as the way it should be done. "Sorry but there really is no reason for more adaptations of wuthering heights when the 2011 movie directed by andrea arnold exists," one X post read, drawing 14,000 likes.

Outside of the whitewashing accusations, other fans felt both actors are simply not right for the roles, and Dev Patel was a popular suggestion to play Heathcliff instead.

"No hate to margot robbie and jacob elordi but neither of them have enough Psychologically Tortured vibes to play cathy and heathcliff," said one X user. "like a wuthering heights adaptation simply needs actors who are weirder."

Fennell made her directorial debut in 2020 with "Promising Young Woman," which received five Oscar nominations, including best picture, and won best original screenplay. But her follow-up, "Saltburn," was more divisive, and some viewers reacted negatively to its shocking and provocative sexually explicit content. The film, which starred Elordi opposite Barry Keoghan, was shut out at the Oscars, earning zero nominations.