Actress Margot Robbie delves into the roller-coaster romance of Wuthering Heights

LOS ANGELES – Actress Margot Robbie says her romance film Wuthering Heights sinks into a love dark enough to wound, describing her Catherine and co-star Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff as doomed lovers whose dynamic makes the brooding new adaptation both “sadomasochistic and desperately sweet”.

“I think they’re just a couple who are destined to be doomed,” said the star of Barbie (2023).

English writer-director Emerald Fennell’s film – which opens in Singapore cinemas on Feb 12 – revisits one of literature’s most enduring and reinterpreted love stories.

Since English author Emily Bronte published the book Wuthering Heights in 1847, its convoluted tale of Catherine and Heathcliff – bound by childhood devotion, yet divided by class, privilege and their self-sabotaging impulses – has inspired generations of film-makers, playwrights, musicians and directors.

Robbie, 35, and Elordi, 28, are Australians.

“It is ironic that we’re Queenslanders playing two very iconic English characters, but here we are,” she said, referring to Australia’s north-eastern state.

The story begins with Catherine’s volatile father deciding to adopt the orphaned Heathcliff into their household when both are children. But despite vowing to always stay together, their unruly tempers, misunderstandings and social conventions of the time tear them apart, with toxic consequences.

Fennell, 40, aims to capture the same sensuousness she has brought to her previous productions, including numerous shots of intimate touch in the film.

“We had a wonderful little gremlin present with us all the time,” Elordi said.

“It was Emerald Fennell in a raincoat in the bushes near where we’d be doing a scene and she’d be like, ‘Now stroke her hair. Now pull her leg up, yes, yes, yes, yes. Now, kiss her on the neck, if you’re comfortable with that.’”

Robbie, who also produced Wuthering Heights, said: “Everyone’s talking about how steamy it is, but people might be surprised about how emotional it is. It’s pretty heart-rending, but beautiful. It leaves you with that full feeling, if that makes sense.”

Fennell – who helmed black-comedy thriller Saltburn (2023), which also starred Elordi – said she sought to depict the nuances of Catherine and Heathcliff, including their imperfections as people and how they often sabotage each other.

“All the people whom I love have things about them that are terrible, and I have things about me that are terrible. And that’s all part of what makes love so extraordinary is that we forgive and we accept,” Fennell said. REUTERS