Kylie Grunsfeld, Contributing Writer
The internet has been abuzz with conversation surrounding director Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel “Wuthering Heights.”
One of the adaptation’s larger controversies is Fennell’s decision to cast Jacob Elordi, a white man, in the leading role of Heathcliff, an explicitly non-white character.
Fennell is not the first director to make the decision to whitewash Heathcliff; the character has been played by Tom Hardy, Ralph Fiennes and Laurence Olivier in past adaptations. So why is Elordi’s casting such a big deal?
First, we have to understand the role that Heathcliff’s race and skin color plays in Brontë’s novel. It is not simply a decision Brontë made offhandedly — it is the reason why Heathcliff is treated the way he was and why he eventually turns into the man that he did.
It is Heathcliff’s perceived otherness that keeps him and Catherine, the anti-heroine of the book, from each other.
How did Fennell justify the treatment of Heathcliff as “other” if skin color was not involved? She just decided that keeping him as lower-class would be enough.
Fine. The story still works. It starts a far less poignant, thought-provoking conversation, but it works.
But if the issue was finding an actor for Heathcliff that would sell tickets, I find that a lousy excuse. There are plenty of Black and brown-skinned English actors who are widely beloved. They don’t even have to be English like the original characters — Elordi and the lead playing Catherine, Margot Robbie, are both Australian.
If the issue was trying to make Heathcliff as sexy and alluring as possible, I find that a disgusting excuse. Is the implication that Heathcliff can only be a convincing love interest if he is made white?
When asked about Elordi’s casting, Fennell had this to say: “You can only ever kind of make the movie that you sort of imagined yourself when you read it.”
When confronted with themes of race-based oppression and discrimination crucial to understanding the novel, Fennell still chose to imagine whiteness.
Criticism of Elordi’s casting has often been met with an argument that I’m tired of hearing: “Movies have turned white characters non-white, so why is it an issue if it’s the other way around?”
Some examples of this are Halle Bailey playing Ariel in the live-action adaptation of “The Little Mermaid,” and Leah Jefferies as Annabeth Chase in the new “Percy Jackson” TV series.
Thousands of people announced their issues with these castings, citing “wokeness” as the cause of the race-swapping. There was even outrage in 2012 when Amandla Stenberg was cast as Rue in the “Hunger Games” movie — a character who was literally described as being dark-skinned in the book.
These lamentations of “reverse whitewashing” don’t make much sense.
Unlike Heathcliff, Ariel and Annabeth’s skin colors do not play a role in their stories. Casting a Black woman as Ariel does not change the events of her movie. And after all, she’s a mermaid. If her being played by a Black woman is more unbelievable than her being half-fish, half-woman, I think that draws some questions.
Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” missed a great opportunity to cast a leading man of color and let him be sexy, unforgiving and himself. Whether or not you like Elordi as an actor or believe that book-to-movie adaptations should be faithful is irrelevant — this casting was rightfully controversial.
There is no shortage of white stories being told. A white main character is not an anomaly.
Had this not been an adaptation of a book where discrimination based on skin color is a central theme, perhaps the conversation would be different. But the fact is that Fennell chose to water down — or take out completely — themes that were explicit in the book. And considering her reach and influence, this cannot be ignored.