Is Heathcliff White?

"The director - who seems to have strategically preempted judgment about the film's faithfulness to its source text by cushioning the title with scare quotes - dug herself into a bit of a hole: "Everyone who loves this book has such a personal connection to it, and so you can only kind of ever make the movie that you sort of imagined yourself when you read it.""

"In the novel, Heathcliff is described within the first few pages as a "dark-skinned gypsy in aspect." A director choosing to imagine away racial clues? In this economy? Many Wuthering Heights fans are adamant that they know Heathcliff's true identity, even if they're often reaching different conclusions; some of the most common claims are that he's Black or of Romani origin. Others believe he could be Irish."

At the L.A. premiere of Wuthering Heights, Emerald Fennell defended casting Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff amid criticism that the role should go to a person of color. Fennell argued viewers can only make the movie they imagined when they read the book. The novel describes Heathcliff as a "dark-skinned gypsy in aspect," prompting debates that he might be Black, Romani, or Irish. Online backlash followed the casting announcement. Onscreen portrayals have often pictured Heathcliff as a white man played by Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, and Ralph Fiennes. Andrea Arnold's 2011 film presented a biracial Heathcliff, and Fennell cast people of color in other roles such as Edgar Linton and Nelly Dean.

Read at Vulture