Wuthering Heights’ casting director defends casting Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff

I don’t have strong feelings about Wuthering Heights, the novel or any of the film adaptations. Jane Eyre is the book I have strong feelings about, and if Margot Robbie ever tries to play Jane Eyre, I will be ready to fight her one-on-one. But Margot signed on to play Catherine in Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights. WH fans have already been traumatized by the casting and the first photos from the set. It’s not just that Margot is a 34-year-old woman playing a character who is supposed to be 18 or 19 years old. It’s that they cast Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff. Heathcliff, who is described by Emily Brontë as being “dark-skinned.” Well, Emerald’s casting director recently spoke at a Q&A session, and what she said is completely bonkers.

Wuthering Heights characters Catherine and Heathcliff may not be able to live without one another, but the upcoming film’s casting director thinks fans can live without the film’s lead actors looking exactly how they are described in the novel. After receiving backlash for casting Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in the film, set to be theatrically released Feb. 13, 2026, casting director Kharmel Cochrane is speaking out in defense of the choices.

“If something is clearly written as white, for example, a script reads ‘she tied her blonde hair back,’ but there’s no specific reason for it, I will just put people on tape,” she explained during a Q&A session at the Sands Film Festival in Scotland on April 26. “And then it’s almost like I dare someone to question why I’ve done it, and they don’t. So then it just becomes normal. Years ago, I would get people saying, ‘did you read the brief?’ And I’d say yeah, and this is my interpretation of it, just like when you can read a book.”

Specific complaints regarding the casting of the film adaptation of the Emily Brontë romance novel were that Robbie, 34, was too old to play 18-year-old Catherine Earnshaw, and that Elordi’s fair complexion doesn’t align with Heathcliff, the foster son of the Earnshaw family, being described in the text as “dark-skinned.” And some of those unhappy with the casting took their disappointment to extremes.

“There was one Instagram comment that said the casting director should be shot,” Cochrane said. “But just wait till you see it, and then you can decide whether you want to shoot me or not. But you really don’t need to be accurate. It’s just a book. That is not based on real life. It’s all art.”

[From E! News]

First off, don’t send death threats to anyone, especially not casting directors. As for what Kharmel Cochrane says… like, I believe in color-blind casting, especially with original scripts or when the project is making a certain point about race, i.e. what Bridgerton has been doing this whole time. But let’s be clear: Heathcliff was originally written as a “dark-skinned” man, and Cochrane’s color-blind casting led her to cast… a fair-skinned Australian. “I will just put people on tape” and then cast only white people?? And you’re proud of that? Anyway, I don’t even think Elordi’s casting was Cochrane’s call, I think this was all Emerald Fennell. Anyway, I’m sure this adaptation is going to be an absolute trainwreck! If Emerald even looks at Jane Eyre though…

Margot Robbie & Jacob Elordi on the set of Emerald Fennell’s ‘WUTHERING HEIGHTS’. ????

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— Film Crave (@filmcrave.bsky.social) April 12, 2025 at 11:39 PM

First look at Margot Robbie on the set of Emerald Fennell’s ‘WUTHERING HEIGHTS’. ????

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— Film Crave (@filmcrave.bsky.social) March 22, 2025 at 10:14 PM

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.