In the run-up to the release of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, the marketing has very much played up the steamyness of the film, particularly in the heated chemistry between Margot Robbie’s Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff. That being said: sometimes marketing can be misleading. Is the movie going to truly be as wild as advertised? Based on the reaction that Robbie witnessed when screening the final cut for a few of her close friends, the answer to that question appears to be a “yes.”
We are still a couple weeks away from Wuthering Heights arriving in theaters, but being both the star and a producer offers Robbie some special privileges, and she shared a story about a recent personal screening while appearing as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! It was apparently decided among her friend group that they should have a special bachelorette party for Catherine, and while she initially thought they were kidding, they were being very serious.
There was a dress code that Margot Robbie describes as “Victorian slutty” (“I was dressed in white corsets and lace, and they’re all dressed like Mob Wives in black lace and corsets”), and there was plenty of alcohol adding fuel to the fire. She couldn’t get into details about the night, but she clearly had a great deal of fun, saying,
There’s girl code, so I really can’t tell you much, but what I will say is I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll screen the movie at the start of the bachelorette [party]. I’ll screen it for the girls, and they’ll love it. And it was the most unhinged experience of my life. First of all, it was the funnest Wednesday night I’ve ever had in my life. It ended up being the craziest night ever.
As you can probably guess, the viewing of the film wasn’t exactly traditional: everyone didn’t just take their seats and sit back to enjoy the film. Instead, the atmosphere blending with the Wuthering Heights experience apparently inspired a good bit of chaos. In the Barbie star’s words:
The screening itself, just to put this into context, it’s like 20 women were frothing at the mouth. They were like rabid dogs. They were a couple of drinks in already, and then the movie started… They were screaming so much I was like, ‘They’re missing most of the movie.’ It wasn’t really watching a movie. It was like a call-and-response sort of situation. There was like constant commentary and screaming throughout and sobbing in parts as well.
Not exactly the vibes of a professional critic’s screening, but I will say this: clearly the movie had some kind of impact, and it’s also not hard to imagine groups of friends hosting their own versions of the same experience.
It sounds like it was a fun celebration of Margot Robbie’s latest work, but don’t fear that Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff didn’t get enough attention:
Jacob came on screen, and I think it registered on the Richter scale… Honestly, I was like, ‘If he walked in right now, I think they would eat him.’
Emerald Fennell’s follow-up to Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, Wuthering Heights also stars Alison Oliver, Hong Chau, Martin Clunes and Shazad Latif, and after getting some super early buzz from reported test screenings last summer, the film will be arriving in theaters just in time for Valentine’s Day on February 13.
