Wuthering Heights is host to one of the literary world’s most unhealthy relationships, with both Heathcliff and Cathy treating each other and those around them very badly due to their own traumas and flaws. When promoting Emerald Fennell’s film version, Margot Robbie spoke about how “lost” she felt without co-star Jacob Elordi after filming wrapped, telling Fandango that she was “like a kid without their blanket”.
Her comments seemingly led to people thinking the actors had started to turn into their characters and become ‘co-dependent’ on each other, something the Barbie actor was keen to shut down.
Speaking to Glamour, Robbie cleared up what she meant when she made the initial comments.
“Unfortunately, that whole co-dependency thing has been really taken out of context and blown way up,” she said.
“What I was saying was we had a really fun time, all of us working on this film, and I really love making movies and when I get to make them with really cool people that you become friends with, it’s really sad when the job ends.”
Warner Bros.
Related: UK film release dates
Robbie also spoke about being drawn to playing characters in dysfunctional relationships.
She said: “It’s something I actually did research a lot back in the day. I think those dynamics on screen make for great traumas, don’t they? So inherently, there’s something toxic or dangerous about that dynamic, too.
“Certainly, for Cathy and Heathcliff, their love does, when unrequited, mutate into something destructive that ends up hurting a lot of the characters around them.”
Warner Bros.
Related: Why Wuthering Heights ending is different from the original book
But it turns out getting into the right mindset to portray a toxic relationship wasn’t the toughest bit about making the film, it was dealing with the weight of delivering such famous dialogue.
“The biggest challenge was probably saying some really iconic lines from the original book,” she explained. “Knowing the pressure of doing your ‘to be or not to be’ speech is like, ‘oh, okay, these lines have been said by brilliant people before, and they’ll continue being said by brilliant people.’
“These words are alive to so many people who love the book and now I’ve got to say them and make it sound like it’s just occurring to me in this moment.”
Wuthering Heights is out in cinemas now. Here’s when it is likely to be available at home.
The new edition of Living Legends, a 100-page all-colour celebration of Taylor Swift, is here! Buy Taylor in newsagents or online, priced at just £8.99.
Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he’s covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I’m a Fish.