‘Wuthering Heights’ casting director breaks silence on backlash

The Wuthering Heights casting director Kharmel Cochrane, revealed her thoughts on Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi casting backlash.

Since the news broke out about the Emily Brontë's novel adaptation, some fans questioned whether Robbie and Elordi were the right actors for the role.

During a Q&A session at the Sands International Film Festival of St Andrews in Scotland, Cochrane explained how the director Emerald Fennell and other filmmakers added their own spin in the story.

"There's definitely going to be some English lit fans that are not going to be happy," she warned during the session, according to Deadline.

Cochrane said she encountered "one Instagram comment that said the casting director should be shot."

She justified and defended her casting choice, joking that fans ought to "just wait [until] 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," she continued.

The backlash on Robbie majorly revolved around her age and her hairstyle.

Her character, Catherine, is described in the novel as "almost 17" year old girl, while Robbie is 34, and although she kept her hair blonde, the character in the novel originally has "brown ringlets."

However, much of the controversy centred on Elordi’s casting. In the book, his character Heathcliff was described by the author as "a dark skinned-gipsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman," and in one scene the character even pleads, "I wish I had light hair and a fair skin."

The 1847 novel adaptation of Wuthering Heights is set to hit the theatres on February 13, 2026.