Don’t knock it till you try it. This is the new message from casting director Kharmel Cochrane, who has recently become the subject of some online backlash after casting Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in Wuthering Heights. Emerald Fennell’s upcoming adaptation of the classic novel only just wrapped, but fans have already made their distaste known. Now, the Wuthering Heights casting director is defending Margot and Jacob, cautioning fans to watch before they judge.
Kharmel touched on her most controversial casting during a Q&A session at the Sands Film Festival in Scotland on April 26. And it’s safe to say she has heard your outrage. “There was one Instagram comment that said the casting director should be shot,” she said, per Deadline. “But just wait till you see it, and then you can decide whether you want to shoot me or not.” Kharmel continued, refuting the criticism that the casting should be true to Emily Brontë’s original character descriptions. “You really don’t need to be accurate. It’s just a book,” she said. “This is not based on real life. It’s all art.”
First look at Margot Robbie on the set of Emerald Fennell’s ‘WUTHERING HEIGHTS’. 📷 pic.twitter.com/3Bxa2NjPUM
— Film Crave (@_filmcrave) March 23, 2025
While many critics have spoken about Margot’s modern looks—not to mention the film’s period-inaccurate costume design leaked by paparazzi (see above)—Jacob’s casting was a bit more controversial. In the novel, Heathcliff is described as “dark-skinned,” leading some fans to accuse the new film of whitewashing the character.
While it doesn’t appear that Kharmel addressed this point directly, she did say that, in general, she prefers not to be beholden to any specific character descriptions if they’re not directly relevant to the plot. “If something is clearly written as white, for example, a script reads ‘she tied her blonde hair back,’ but there’s no specific reason for it, I will just put people on tape,” she said. “And then it’s almost like I dare someone to question why I’ve done it, and they don’t. So then it just becomes normal. Years ago, I would get people saying, ‘Did you read the brief?’ And I’d say, ‘Yeah, and this is my interpretation of it, just like when you can read a book.’”
This model of (attempted) race-blind casting has become more and more common in Hollywood over the last decade, but it doesn’t always lead to diverse films or TV shows, and it certainly didn’t lead to any non-white leads in Wuthering Heights. Maybe next time, I guess.
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