Margot Robbie covers British Vogue in advance of the release of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, out on Valentine’s Day 2026. While I don’t believe Margot is right for Cathy, I’m not worried about Margot generally speaking – she’s already had so much success, even if Wuthering bombs, Margot will be fine. What worries me is… what if it doesn’t bomb? What if it’s horrible and people still watch it? What if book purists don’t even matter? That’s what haunts me. Margot is a producer on the film, so she’s already in saleswoman mode, really trying to get people to give this film a shot. Some highlights from Vogue:

Producer Margot: She is a producer too, as she was on Fennell’s last two films. As a result, the actor has been hands-on about every aspect of Wuthering Heights, including its promotional campaign. “The first image anyone sees of a movie is when you actually begin entertaining them,” she tells me, grinning. For that first photo, she says, “I remember someone being like, ‘Do you want a double [to have a finger and some turf stuffed in their mouth]?’ And I was like, ‘How dare you even ask me?’” She lets out a delighted cackle.

Margot had never read the book: Robbie recalls that Elordi was already cast by the time the screenplay landed on her desk. At that point, Robbie had never read the book or watched any of the existing adaptations of Wuthering Heights. That script “absolutely wrecked me”, she remembers. “I didn’t know what was coming. By the end, I was just so full and so destroyed at the same time.”

On the character of Cathy: “I just felt like… Not like she’s mine, but like I both understood her and didn’t, in a way that drew me to her. It’s this puzzle you have to work out.” She would have produced the film anyway, but decided to throw her hat in the ring to play Cathy too – though she didn’t “want Emerald to feel like she had to say yes”.

Fennell on Cathy: “Cathy is a star. She’s wilful, mean, a recreational sadist, a provocateur. She engages in cruelty in a way that is disturbing and fascinating. It was about finding someone who you would forgive in spite of yourself, someone who literally everyone in the world would understand why you love her. It’s difficult to find that supersized star power. Margot comes with big d–k energy. That’s what Cathy needs.”

On the casting controversies: Of the chatter over this new Cathy being blonde not brunette, she says, “I get it” because “there’s nothing else to go off at this point until people see the movie”. (Fennell also clarifies that her Cathy is older than in the novel, in her mid-20s to early 30s.) On the subject of Elordi’s casting, though, Robbie is quiet and contemplative. “I saw him play Heathcliff,” she says finally. “And he is Heathcliff. I’d say, just wait. Trust me, you’ll be happy. It’s a character that has this lineage of other great actors who’ve played him, from Laurence Olivier to Richard Burton and Ralph Fiennes to Tom Hardy. To be a part of that is special. He’s incredible and I believe in him so much. I honestly think he’s our generation’s Daniel Day-Lewis.”

Whether the film is raunchy: “It goes there. Everyone’s expecting this to be very, very raunchy. I think people will be surprised. Not to say there aren’t sexual elements and that it’s not provocative – it definitely is provocative – but it’s more romantic than provocative. This is a big epic romance. It’s just been so long since we’ve had one – maybe The Notebook, also The English Patient. You have to go back decades. It’s that feeling when your chest swells or it’s like someone’s punched you in the guts and the air leaves your body. That’s a signature of Emerald’s. Whether it’s titillating or repulsion, her superpower is eliciting a physical response.”

It’s full of stuff for women in their 30s?? “It was the little things that we loved as two women in our 30s, and this movie is primarily for people in our demographic. These epic romances and period pieces aren’t often made by women.”

This generation’s Titanic: The best reference point for the film as a whole, Robbie thinks, is Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet. “It’s a literary classic, visually stunning and emotionally resonant. In one of our first conversations about this film, I asked Emerald what her dream outcome was. She said, ‘I want this to be this generation’s Titanic. I went to the cinema to watch Romeo & Juliet eight times and I was on the ground crying when I wasn’t allowed to go back for a ninth. I want it to be that.’” Their hope is that women “go see it with 10 of their female friends”. “And I think it’s going to be an amazing date movie,” Robbie adds. She has been encouraged by the response from early test screenings. “I was surprised by the fact that so few people had actually read the book,” she says of the film’s first audiences. “Quite a few had heard of it, but actually a huge portion hadn’t. So, for many people, this is their introduction to Wuthering Heights, which is exciting.”

[From British Vogue]

“So, for many people, this is their introduction to Wuthering Heights” – this is exactly what frightens me, although I understand why a lot of younger people have skipped Wuthering Heights. Authors like Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen come in and out of style, but Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights has largely left school curriculums and it’s not a book where girls are peer-pressured to read by their friends. The whole “this generation’s Titanic” thing is…worrisome. Wuthering Heights is not that. Whatsoever. I’m curious about how badly Fennell f–ked up the script, but not curious enough to actually watch it.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red and screencaps courtesy of ‘Wuthering Heights’ trailer. Cover courtesy of British Vogue.