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    "original_url": "https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/13\/movies\/heathcliff-jacob-elordi-wuthering-heights-whitewashing.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20260214&instance_id=171097&nl=the-morning&regi_id=122976029&segment_id=215262&user_id=b25c5730c89e0c73f75709d8f1254337",
    "parsed_content": "What to WatchOscar Nominees: Where to Stream\u2018Sirat\u2019\u2018Pillion\u2019\u2018The President\u2019s Cake\u2019\u2018Calle M\u00e1laga\u2019\u2018The Muppet Show\u2019AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTJacob Elordi, Heathcliff and the Controversy Over \u2018Wuthering Heights\u2019The character\u2019s racial identity is at the heart of accusations that the film\u2019s casting is \u201cwhitewashing.\u201d But what does the original novel really say?Listen to this article \u00b7 5:51 min Learn moreShare full articleJacob Elordi as Heathcliff in a scene from the new \u201cWuthering Heights.\u201dCredit...Warner Bros. By Esther ZuckermanFeb. 13, 2026In Emily Bront\u00eb\u2019s \u201cWuthering Heights,\u201d Heathcliff is described as a \u201cdark-skinned gipsy.\u201d In Emerald Fennell\u2019s new film \u201cWuthering Heights,\u201d the character is portrayed by Jacob Elordi, a white actor from Australia.Ever since Elordi was announced in the role, the choice has stirred up controversy online, where authenticity in casting is highly prized. Some frustrated fans have argued that the casting whitewashes the role. But Bront\u00eb scholars say that much of what the author writes about the character\u2019s race remains up for interpretation, even if the consensus is that he was probably not intended to be white.As a boy, Heathcliff is brought into the home of Catherine Earnshaw (who becomes his romantic obsession) by her father, Mr. Earnshaw. Quite a few passages in the novel suggest that Bront\u00eb, who died a year after its publication, intended to write Heathcliff as a person of color. In addition to being called \u201cdark\u201d and a \u201cgipsy,\u201d he is also referred to as a \u201cLascar,\u201d a term for South Asian laborers on British ships.At one point, Heathcliff compares himself with Edgar Linton, whom Catherine will eventually marry, saying, \u201cI wish I had light hair and fair skin.\u201d The servant Nelly Dean suggests that Heathcliff could be a \u201cprince in disguise,\u201d continuing, \u201cWho knows but your father was emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen.\u201dSusan Newby, learning officer at the Bront\u00eb Parsonage Museum in Haworth, England, said, \u201cThere is a sense that he is not white Anglo-Saxon, he\u2019s something else, but you don\u2019t know what that is.\u201dImageElordi with Margot Robbie as Cathy. When it comes to Heathcliff\u2019s racial identity, scholars say the novel is open to interpretation.Credit...Warner Bros. PicturesSome scholars believe that Bront\u00eb was using Heathcliff to comment on the Liverpool slave trade. Mr. Earnshaw brings Heathcliff from Liverpool, and Nelly, who narrates this part of the action, explains that Earnshaw saw Heathcliff starving and asked after his \u201cowner.\u201dSign up for the Race\/Related Newsletter Join a deep and provocative exploration of race, identity and society with New York Times journalists.\n Get it sent to your inbox.It makes sense that Bront\u00eb would be interested in slavery. Her father, Patrick Bront\u00eb, was associated with the abolitionist politician William Wilberforce, who, according to the Parsonage Museum, helped pay for Patrick to study at Cambridge.Reginald Watson, an associate professor of literature at East Carolina University, has studied questions of Blackness in the works of the Bront\u00ebs, including Emily\u2019s sister Charlotte, the \u201cJane Eyre\u201d author. \u201cMy belief is that because of the father\u2019s involvement in abolitionism that both of the authors included connections to slavery in some form,\u201d Watson said. His position is that while Heathcliff \u201cmay not be totally Black,\u201d he is mixed.Another theory, however, is that Bront\u00eb was using Heathcliff to comment on prejudices against the Irish, since her father was from Ireland and she was writing at the start of the potato famine there. \u201cThink about Heathcliff who was brought from Liverpool and speaks a sort of gibberish,\u201d said Elsie Michie, a professor of English at Louisiana State University. \u201cThe description of Heathcliff conforms almost exactly to the caricatures of the Irish.\u201dMichie added that the \u201cdynamics of this novel are about otherness in various ways, and that otherness is in Heathcliff.\u201dOnscreen, however, Heathcliff has largely been played by white actors, including Timothy Dalton, Ralph Fiennes and, perhaps most famously, Laurence Olivier in William Wyler\u2019s 1939 version opposite Merle Oberon as Catherine. (Oberon actually was South Asian but hid that to ascend in Hollywood at the time.) A notable exception is Andrea Arnold\u2019s 2012 adaptation, in which the adult Heathcliff was played by the Black actor James Howson. In an interview with NPR at the time, Arnold said, \u201cIn the book it was clear he wasn\u2019t white-skinned. I felt that Emily was not committing exactly; she was playing with her own difference as a female.\u201dFennell\u2019s version does away with references to Heathcliff\u2019s race, instead largely focusing on his tortured romance with Cathy (Margot Robbie). Still, the cast doesn\u2019t lack diversity entirely. Nelly is played by the Vietnamese American actress Hong Chau, and Shazad Latif, who is of Pakistani descent, plays Edgar Linton.Asked about the Heathcliff casting by The Hollywood Reporter, Fennell emphasized that her decision was based on how she saw the text. \u201cI think the thing is everyone who loves this book has such a personal connection to it, and so you can only ever make the movie that you sort of imagined yourself when you read it,\u201d she said.ImageThe director Emerald Fennell has been accused of \u201cwhitewashing\u201d Heathcliff.Credit...Warner Bros. Speaking at the Bront\u00eb Women\u2019s Writing Festival, hosted by the Parsonage Museum last year, Fennell said she thought Elordi \u201clooked exactly like the illustration of Heathcliff\u201d on the first copy she read.Fidelity in casting has continued to be a hot topic. After Odessa A\u2019zion was hired for the forthcoming adaptation of Holly Brickley\u2019s novel \u201cDeep Cuts,\u201d there was an uproar because her character is described as half-Jewish, half-Mexican, and A\u2019zion has no Mexican heritage. She dropped out of the project and explained on Instagram, \u201cI hadn\u2019t read the book and should have paid more attention to all aspects of Zoe before accepting.\u201dBut while Newby, for instance, said she believes that Bront\u00eb presents Heathcliff as nonwhite, she also thinks the author leaves room for discussion. \u201cShe deliberately keeps it ambiguous,\u201d Newby said.At the same time, Newby isn\u2019t bothered by Elordi\u2019s casting, in part because Fennell has been so explicit about the film being from her own perspective. The director makes a number of major changes, getting rid of some characters and altering details of Cathy and Heathcliff\u2019s interactions. \u201cSomehow I feel more bothered by some past adaptations that have very unquestionably, unthinkingly showed him as being white without ever really reading the book and thinking, \u2018Right, this is how it\u2019s described,\u2019\u201d Newby said. \u201cIt was almost that was a default. You won\u2019t be taken seriously as a lead if he\u2019s not white.\u201dThe mystery is also part of the appeal of Heathcliff: We never do learn his origins before Earnshaw brings him into that household.A version of this article appears in print on Feb. 14, 2026, Section C, Page 5 of the New York edition with the headline: Who Is Heathcliff? Here Are Theories.. Order Reprints | Today\u2019s Paper | SubscribeSee more on: Emily BronteRead 61 commentsShare full articleRelated ContentAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
    "ai_headline": "Jacob Elordi, Heathcliff and the Controversy Over \u2018Wuthering Heights\u2019",
    "ai_simplified_title": "Jacob Elordi Whitewashes Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights Casting",
    "ai_excerpt": "The article discusses the controversy surrounding Jacob Elordi's casting as Heathcliff in the new 'Wuthering Heights' film, focusing on accusations of whitewashing. It explores the novel's ambiguous descriptions of Heathcliff's race and the historical context of the book's themes. Scholars and experts weigh in on the interpretation of the character's identity.",
    "ai_subject_tags": [
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        "Casting",
        "Whitewashing",
        "Wuthering Heights",
        "Jacob Elordi",
        "Emily Bront\u00eb",
        "Race",
        "Adaptation"
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