Wuthering Heights director regrets not showing Margot Robbie's extremely hairy armpits'

A 2026 adaptation of Wuthering Heights features Cathy with extremely hairy armpits, and a scene showing them was removed from the final cut. The director said period adaptations often depict women with clean-shaven underarms and questioned where razors are used, noting that many portrayals look hairless. The adaptation was described as a sister to the original rather than a direct twin, with creative choices that could not be made from the source. The production included a “skin room” with walls resembling Cathy’s skin and involved marketing discussions about color themes. The fish scene was developed through experimentation with different fish versions and the idea of sexual frustration driving the action.

"It was unfortunate that a scene showing Margot Robbie's hairy armpits did not make the final cut, because women in period adaptations are often shown with clean-shaven underarms. Robbie's character, Cathy, had extremely hairy armpits in the 2026 adaptation of the novel, but unfortunately the scene that we see them didn't make it in there, said the director. Cathy having unshaven pits was so important to me, she said, adding that she often wonders where are the razors that these women are using? when watching Jane Austen adaptations."

"They're all kind of hairless like eels. I'm like: What's going on? It's completely mad.' Fennell spoke to an audience at Hay festival in Wales on Friday evening. Her sexed-up adaptation of Emily Bronte's gothic novel, starring Robbie alongside Jacob Elordi, was released on Valentine's Day this year. Emerald Fennell in 2020. She also told the Hay festival audience about Wuthering Heights' skin room' and fish scene'."

"Fennell described it as a sister, not a twin of the book, saying that she couldn't make the original. It's so brilliant, she added. Asked about the infamous skin room' Cathy's husband, Edgar Linton, gives her bedroom a bespoke design with walls that resemble her skin' Fennell joked that in marketing meetings the team considered asking Farrow & Ball to make a Cathy's skin themed colour. They also asked Robbie to send close-up images of the underside of her wrist in order to reproduce her veins on the walls."

"Fennell also spoke about the much-discussed fish scene, in which Cathy sticks her finger into a dead fish's mouth. I saw a fish in aspic and I thought: I want to stick my finger in its mouth.' And then I was like, Well, I think if you were trapped, and you were extremely sexually frustrated, the first thing you'd do is ' We had all of the different fish, we had fish with lipstick on, we had real fish, fake fish, in the end that was "

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