Margot Robbie Still Can’t Believe She’s Playing Catherine in Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights

Margot Robbie still can’t quite believe she’s landed the leading role in the upcoming Wuthering Heights movie — even though she’s also producing it.

The 35-year-old actress opened up about the project during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show on Friday, Feb. 6, where she was joined by her co-star Jacob Elordi. The film is a new take on Wuthering Heights, directed by Emerald Fennell.

Robbie revealed that she wasn’t always meant to play Catherine Earnshaw, the novel’s iconic female lead.

“I wasn’t always going to be in it,” Robbie said. “I was thrilled to be the producer, but at some point we were talking about Cathy, and I decided to throw my hat into the ring.”

That leap paid off. Robbie explained that she has long admired Fennell’s work and had always hoped to act in one of her films.

“I’ve always wanted to be one of Emerald’s actors and fortunately, she felt the same way. It worked out wonderfully,” she said.

Fennell, who is best known for directing Saltburn and Promising Young Woman, is putting a deeply personal spin on the classic gothic novel. According to Robbie, the director is less focused on a word-for-word adaptation and more on capturing the emotions the story stirred in her as a teenager.

“Emerald loves the book and really focused on the feeling it gave her when she first read it at 14,” Robbie said. “She channels that raw emotional experience, so it’s an interpretation rather than an adaptation.”

Elordi stars opposite Robbie as Heathcliff, the troubled orphan who forms an intense and destructive bond with Catherine. The story explores love, class divides and the lasting impact of obsession on families.

Robbie didn’t hold back her praise for the film.

“In my opinion, it’s one of the greatest love stories of all time,” she said. “It has a great cast and incredible actors. It’s a great film.”

The supporting cast includes Hong Chau, Alison Oliver, Shazad Latif, Martin Clunes and Ewan Mitchell. Younger versions of Catherine and Heathcliff are played by Charlotte Mellington and Owen Cooper, who recently appeared in Adolescence.

Elordi admitted that his casting came completely out of the blue.

“I was traveling when I got a text message from Emerald saying, ‘Do you want to be Heathcliff?’” he told the audience. “And I wrote back, ‘Yeah.’”

The actor has been riding a wave of momentum after receiving an Oscar nomination for Frankenstein, making Wuthering Heights one of his most anticipated roles yet.

The film is set for a romantic release just ahead of Valentine’s Day, hitting theaters on Friday, Feb. 13 — a fitting date for one of literature’s most intense and tragic love stories.