Margot Robbie reveals 'super-intimate' reality of 'Wuthering Heights'

Margot Robbie has no chill.

Take it from her “Wuthering Heights” costar Jacob Elordi, who's up for a best supporting actor Oscar for his transformational turn as the Creature in “Frankenstein.” Robbie was one of the first people he heard from when nominations were announced.

“There were a lot of emojis,” Elordi says with a grin, seated with Robbie on a recent morning.

“I was so excited, I squealed out loud,” Robbie adds buoyantly. “I am not cool via text – I do not know how to hide my enthusiasm.”

The Aussie actors have linked up for one of the year’s most hotly anticipated movies, “Wuthering Heights” (in theaters Feb. 13), a scorchingly singular new take on Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel from Oscar-winning provocateur Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”).

The film follows the doomed romance between the dangerous, hulking Heathcliff (Elordi) and petulant, free-spirited Catherine (Robbie), who marries the mild-tempered Edgar (Shazad Latif) as she tries to bury her true feelings.

The drama’s titillating marketing promises a much spicier version of Brontë’s classic than we’ve seen in the past, as the forbidden pair unleash their carnal desires everywhere from a horse-drawn carriage to the English moors to a verdant garden during a downpour.

But in actuality, filming the movie’s many sex scenes was far less swoon-worthy.

Audiences “forget how many people are on a film set – there are hundreds of people sometimes,” Robbie, 35, recalls with a laugh. “Even though something looks like, ‘Wow, that’s super-intimate! It’s just those two actors there!’ Three feet away, there’s Emerald with an iPad and watching the monitor.”

'Wuthering Heights' isn't nearly as 'explicit' as you think

Fennell created a viral phenomenon in 2023's "Saltburn," a pitch-black riff on "The Talented Mr. Ripley" that didn't shy away from full-frontal nudity, menstrual blood and seminal fluid.

But in "Wuthering Heights," some of the lustiest moments are merely suggested: Catherine and Heathcliff licking the bedroom walls during foreplay, and shoving their fingers or clumps of grass in each other's mouths. (We won’t even tell you what happens with a horse bridle and dog collar.)

"Things that are sexy often take us by surprise," Fennell says. "Maybe some people would argue otherwise, but I'm not interested in anything being explicit. I'm interested in making people feel."

The movie's sexual intimations are "entirely in the spirit of the novel," Elordi, 28, says. “Any image that comes from Emerald's head is inspired by that depravity and love and obsession. They’re all in the language of what Brontë was driving at with this book, so it was never really a shock or a reach.”

Why is 'Wuthering Heights' rated R?

“Wuthering Heights” has been rated R for language, as well as sexual and violent content.

“But it’s funny: Jacob with his shirt off is the most nudity there is,” Robbie says. “There's no nudity whatsoever other than that. Sometimes, the most provocative moments are when the characters are fully clothed, because there's just been so much buildup.”

Adds Elordi: “The second they embrace, you know it can’t work. The whole film is like getting punched by how devastating the gap between them is.”

Jacob Elordi surprised Margot Robbie with this 'amazing' gesture

Although the movie is set in the late 18th century, the Technicolor sets and costumes are boldly anachronistic. (Think latex gowns and vinyl bedroom canopies.) The film, too, is soundtracked by a pulsing electronic score from Anthony Willis, with original songs by "Brat" hitmaker Charli XCX.

"The book is extremely strange and out of kilter with so much of contemporary literature," Fennell explains. "We needed to understand from the very beginning that this is slightly out of its time. I want people's blood up; I want them complicit; I want them f------ screaming."

To prepare, Fennell made the cast a playlist of period-appropriate sea shanties and modern rock and pop. Latif says he listened to "sad country songs" by Zach Bryan to get in character, while Alison Oliver, who plays the lovelorn Isabella, says she had "classical music and Fiona Apple" on loop.

"I was already having a 'Brat' summer while shooting this movie," Robbie says of her personal playlist. "I also listened to a lot of Kate Bush," who released her lilting debut single "Wuthering Heights" in 1978.

By nature of the story, Elordi and Robbie were practically inseparable throughout production. They tried to mirror Catherine and Heathcliff's relationship with grand gestures: On Valentine's Day, Elordi filled her dressing room with roses, and both actors kept "shrines" featuring photos of one another.

"My core memories are just being next to each other in the makeup chair at 5 a.m.," Elordi recalls. "Well, she'd been there for two hours before me, and I'd just saunter in at the end."

For Robbie, "the roses were amazing, of course, but the way to my heart is food," she says. One day, Elordi surprised her with a curated box of Aussie snacks: "His dad brought it over from Australia, and the nice thing was that you remembered all of my favorite things that I said in passing. I can't believe you remembered the specificity of the banana Nesquik and chicken Twisties."

"And the Australian charcuterie," Elordi adds, joking: "She's a pig!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Robbie says, laughing. "I'm a very simple creature. Just give me some food."