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A casting director has responded to the backlash over Margot Robbie, 34, and Jacob Elordi, 27, starring in the remake of Wuthering Heights.
Speaking on a Q&A panel at the Sands film festival in Scotland, Kharmel Cochrane responded to concern about both the Australian actors’ ages, and Elordi’s ethnicity, by saying there is ‘no need to be accurate,’ because ‘it’s just a book’.
The casting veteran said she is currently catching a lot of heat for her work on Emerald Fennell’s adaption of the beloved classic novel.
‘There was one Instagram comment that said the casting director should be shot,’ Cochrane said, per Deadline.
‘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.’
A casting director has responded to the backlash over Margot Robbie, 34, (pictured) and Jacob Elordi, 27, starring in the remake of Wuthering Heights.
Speaking on a Q&A panel at the Sands film festival in Scotland, Kharmel Cochrane responded to concern about both the Australian actors’ ages, and Elordi’s ethnicity, by saying there is ‘no need to be accurate,’ because ‘it’s just a book’
‘There’s definitely going to be some English Lit fans that are not going to be happy,’ she continued.
‘Wait until you see the set design because that is even more shocking. And there may or may not be a dog collar in it.’
Robbie has already been slammed online for her starring role in the latest version of the acclaimed novel, currently being filmed in the UK.
Some fans of the book have questioned if the 34-year-old star is ‘too old’ to play fictional heroine Catherine, who is just a teenager.
After a series of snaps of the Barbie actress on set went viral last week, fans took to social media in droves to claim the Hollywood beauty is ‘wrong’ for the part.
The pictures show Robbie playing the lead character of Catherine, outfitted in a stunning off-the-shoulder wedding dress that featured a voluminous skirt.
She also wears a veil and has her beautiful blonde locks in an artful braid.
Robbie returned to work on the project after giving birth to her first child with her British husband Tom Ackerley last year, and the couple’s production company, LuckyChap, is producing the film.
Hollywood casting director Kharmel Cochrane promised an artistic interpretation of the Emily Bronte’s classic novel: ‘There’s definitely going to be some English Lit fans that are not going to be happy,’ she said at Sands festival in Scotland
Fans of Wuthering Heights have moaned that Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi will ‘ruin’ the Emily Brontë novel adaption because she is ‘too old’ for Catherine and he is ‘not racially ambiguous enough’ for Heathcliff
Taking to X fans have moaned that Robbie and her handsome co-star will ‘ruin’ the 18th century novel by Emily Brontë, which has been filmed many times over the last 100 years.
The original story centers on the upper middle-class Earnshaw family and their turbulent relationship with Heathcliff, an orphaned boy they take in.
News of Elordi’s casting in September had already prompted much backlash amongst critics as the brooding central character is described as a ‘dark-skinned gypsy’ with ‘black eyes’.
Heathcliff is also described as ‘a little Lascar,’ a 19th century term for an Indian sailor, which has also led naysayers to claim Elordi is not ‘racially ambiguous’ enough.
In a recent interview with IndieWire, the Euphoria star opened up about how he landed the role in the first place – and his answer sparked even more backlash.
‘I was really lucky,’ he said.
‘I was going to take a break for a while, and then Emerald just very simply texted me, and you can’t run from that text.’
He added to the publication: ‘I’m so, so excited for people to see it.’
The tortured Heathcliff is one of literature’s most complex anti-heroes and while he is perceived to be racially ambiguous in the original text, he has been played by white actors, including Tom Hardy, Ralph Fiennes, and Lawrence Olivier.
The character of Edgar Linton, a wealthy aristocrat who falls in love with and marries Cathy, is played by 36-year-old British Pakistani actor Shazad Latif, while Oscar-nominated actress Hong Chau, 45, an American born in Thailand, is set to appear as housekeeper Nelly Dean.
Owen Cooper, the young British actor who has made waves for his debut performance in Netflix’s Adolescence, is to play the teenage Heathcliff.
Explaining her unique approach to casting, Cochrane said she never lets her work be dictated by the source material, or a director’s vision: ‘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”.’
She last paired Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi together on the set of 2023 thriller Saltburn.
