In the trailer, Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff is often shirtless and has multiple steamy moments with Margot Robbie as Catherine. Photo / Warner Bros
In the trailer, Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff is often shirtless and has multiple steamy moments with Margot Robbie as Catherine. Photo / Warner Bros
Margot Robbie’s new film Wuthering Heights continues to cause controversy, with the official trailer being savaged online just one day after its release.
Shortly after fans were given a first look at director Emerald Fennell’s take on the Emily Bronte classic, some shocked critics took to social media to saythey found the trailer distasteful, even likening it to “soft porn”.
“Just saw the teaser for #WutheringHeights and it is way worse than I expected … is it me or is it giving soft porn vibes..?? smh,” one critic tweeted, as another added, “Not everything needs to be porn adjacent.”
Some compared the trailer to the erotic Fifty Shades films and spicy Bridgerton series, while others said the film had butchered Bronte’s work.
“Fifty Shades of Grey: 1800s Version,” one fan tweeted, as another wrote, “This has nothing to do with wuthering heights, looks more like a bodice ripper/bridgerton adaptation. Idk what fennell was thinking with this project, it’s truly horrendous & insulting to the source material.”
Fans have compared the trailer to the erotic Fifty Shades film franchise. Photo / Warner Bros
In the trailer, played to a raunchy remix of Charli XCX’s song Everything Is Romantic, the forbidden romance between Robbie’s character, Catherine Earnshaw, and her family’s farmhand Heathcliff (played by fellow Aussie Jacob Elordi) is exposed.
Through a series of suggestive imagery featuring egg yolks running through someone’s fingers and dough being kneaded by someone’s hands, not to mention shirtless scenes of Elordi in a stable, it’s clear that Fennell’s version of Wuthering Heights is the most scandalous yet.
“So they made heathcliff white, catherine blonde, and added bdsm?? this isn’t wuthering heights lol,” a fan commented.
Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in the Wuthering Heights trailer.
Even before the trailer’s release, the film had come under fire from diehard fans of the book for the way it strays from the 1847 novel.
Many pointed out that Bronte depicts Catherine as a teenager with dark hair, whereas Robbie is 35 and blonde.
The film has already come under fire for straying from the classic novel. Photo / Warner Bros
Even the wedding dress that Robbie wears in the first-look scene was criticised as being too modern for a story set in the 19th century.
Some were also unimpressed with the casting of 28-year-old Elordi as Heathcliff.
The “whitewashing” didn’t sit well with critics who claim Elordi was cast over a person of colour, despite Heathcliff being “dark-skinned“ in the novel.
Fennell wrote, directed and produced the film, with Robbie also on-board as producer through her LuckyChap production company.
Margot Robbie plays Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi plays Heathcliff
The movie marks LuckyChap and Fennell’s third collaboration. Robbie’s company also produced Saltburn and Promising Young Woman, both of which were directed by Fennell, who won a best original screenplay Oscar in 2021 for Promising Young Woman.
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