Margot Robbie fully embodied the character of Catherine in Emerald Fennell’s upcoming Wuthering Heights adaptation, to the point where she felt “unnerved and unmoored” whenever co-star Jacob Elordi wasn’t nearby.
Ahead of the film’s Feb. 13 release, Robbie and Elordi—plus Alison Oliver, Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, and Fennell—sat down with Fandango’s Nikki Novak for a 17-minute conversation during which a question about chemistry led to some vulnerable reflections on the production from its stars. Elordi, who plays Heathcliff in the film, recalled multiple “explosive” moments while shooting the latest cinematic take on Emily Brontë’s classic 1847 novel.
At certain points, Elordi explained, “the spirit of their characters” was felt, leading to them “catching little pieces of that unrequited love.”
Robbie agreed, adding some insight into her own feelings of codependency on the set.
“I think I developed that quite quickly with Jacob too,” she said, as seen above. “I don’t know if Emerald told you to do this, or you did this, but I remember the first couple days on set, he would just be, like, always in the vicinity where I was, but in a corner watching Cathy.”
This continued for the first two days of production, leaving Robbie feeling like “a kid without their blanket” when the approach was altered on day three of production.
“Then he wasn’t [there], and I was really unnerved and unmoored,” Robbie, whose LuckChap Entertainment banner is among the producers behind Fennell’s Saltburn follow-up, said. “I felt quite lost, like a kid without their blanket or something. I was like, where is he?”
Accompanying Fennell’s film is a new album from Charli xcx, also titled Wuthering Heights. Three tracks—“House” featuring John Cale, “Chains of Love,” and “Wall of Sound”—have been released so far.
Before the album hits streamers next month, Charli is launching her own film, The Moment, directed by Aidam Zamiri and billed in press notes as “a vaguely true look behind the curtain” of the pop auteur’s BRAT era.