Actress Margot Robbie swaps Barbie pink for gothic chaos in a shocking Wuthering Heights remake which features BDSM and shocking scenes viewers certainly won’t forget
Margot Robbie is set to leave Barbie’s pink dreamhouse well behind in her next big role – and fans should prepare themselves for something a whole lot darker.
The Aussie actress, 35, will star in a brand-new take on Emily Brontë’s gothic classic Wuthering Heights but this is no ordinary period drama. Directed by Emerald Fennell, the woman behind twisted hit Saltburn, the adaptation is already causing a stir with test audiences.
According to reports, viewers have branded the film “aggressively provocative and tonally abrasive,” with the story taking a far more explicit turn than readers of the original novel might expect.
World of Reel revealed Fennell’s version “leans hard into Fennell’s now-familiar brand of stylised depravity” and includes shocking scenes that deviate dramatically from the source material.
The film reportedly opens with a jaw-dropping sequence involving a public hanging that spirals into chaos as the condemned man “ejaculates mid-execution.” The scene doesn’t end there as his death is said to trigger an “orgiastic frenzy” from the crowd, with even a nun joining in to “fondle the corpse’s visible erection.”
That sets the tone for a deliberately unromantic retelling of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw’s destructive love story. Other moments include several “intimate, clinical and purposefully discomforting” masturbation scenes, plus a BDSM-inspired encounter involving horse reins.
Fennell, 39, is also said to use unsettling close-ups of everyday textures, from egg yolks dripping through fingers to slugs sliding down glass to heighten the tension.
World of Reel praised the bold direction, saying: “The last thing anyone wants is another by-the-numbers adaptation. What the next film version called for was a jolt of fresh energy, something bold and unexpected. For better or worse, it seems that’s exactly what Emerald Fennell may have brought to the table.”
Margot has praised the filmmaker in the past, telling Variety: “She gets in your brain and she kind of taps into the most depraved parts of it, so that you’re complicit in the story. That’s the water-cooler moment — the thing that people are talking about two weeks afterwards.”
The project sees Margot star alongside Jacob Elordi, 28, though the casting has already faced criticism. Casting director Kharmel Cochrane defended the choice, saying: “You really don’t need to be accurate — it’s just a book. There’s definitely going to be some ‘English lit’ fans that are not going to be happy.”
Wuthering Heights is shaping up to be one of the most talked-about films of 2025 and the release date has been cheekily set for Valentine’s Day.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
