Emerald Fennell has doubled down on her decision to cast Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in her film adaptation of *Wuthering Heights*, despite receiving pushback from fans over the choice.

The Oscar winner shared insight into her casting decisions while speaking at the Brontë Women’s Writing Festival on Friday. She acknowledged the huge responsibility she felt in adapting Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel for the big screen.

“It’s very personal material for everyone,” Fennell said.

Speaking at the festival held in Brontë’s hometown of West Yorkshire, Fennell revealed she had been obsessed with the book in her teens. One past edition of the novel even inspired her casting of Elordi. Fennell explained that she asked the *Euphoria* star to play the brooding Heathcliff while on the set of *Saltburn*, as he looked exactly like the illustration of Heathcliff in the first book she ever read.

Per the BBC, she added, “I had been thinking about making it [*Wuthering Heights*], and it seemed to me he had the thing… he’s a very surprising actor.”

However, fans of Brontë’s novel did not necessarily agree with this casting choice. Heathcliff is notably described as dark-skinned in the book, and the casting of the white Elordi sparked an outcry online, with some accusing the new adaptation of whitewashing the role.

There was also frustration among fans over the casting of Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff’s love interest, who is a teenager in the novel. Since Robbie is 35 years old, many felt she was too old for the role.

Fennell, however, made it clear she disagreed. She said Robbie was unlike anyone she had ever met, which was exactly what she needed for the role of Cathy.

“I mean, Margot’s beauty is something else,” Fennell joked. “She could commit a killing spree and nobody would mind. And that is who Cathy is to me.”

“Cathy is somebody who just pushes to see how far she can go,” Fennell continued. “So it needed somebody like Margot, who’s a star—not just an incredible actress, which she is, but somebody who has a power, an otherworldly power, a Godlike power, that means people lose their minds.”

*Wuthering Heights* arrives in theaters nationwide on February 13, and internationally starting on February 11.
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