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Emerald Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ Movie Sparks Backlash Over Casting Of Jacob Elordi As “Dark-Skinned” Heathcliff
Emerald Fennell's casting of Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff in 'Wuthering Heights' adaptation criticized after character was described as "dark-skinned."
Heathcliff’s ethnicity is famously ambiguous in Brontë’s 1847 novel, but there is some consensus that his description as a “dark-skinned gipsy” — as well as his abandonment as a baby at the slave port of Liverpool — likely means he was not white. Dr Claire O’Callaghan, editor-in-chief of the official journal of the Brontë Society, told the Telegraph: “I guess the danger of this – of casting a white actor – particularly in the cultural climate, is that it overlooks the ambiguity that’s there.” In a post that has been viewed more than 7.5M times, one user of X (once Twitter) wrote: “Heathcliff is described as a dark-skinned brown man in the book and a major plot point is that he was subjected to racist abuse by his adopted family.
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