'Wuthering Heights' director Emerald Fennell admits not reading the book

Wuthering Heights movie director Emerald Fennell made some major changes to Bronte’s text for her adaptation, which she attributes to her creative liberty.

The 40-year-old filmmaker admitted that she could not have stayed close to the book because it would’ve been beyond the duration of the movie.

While writing the script, the Saltburn director admitted that she followed her experience of reading the book as a teenager instead of rereading it ahead of her writing process.

“So there was a certain amount of wish fulfillment in there, and there were whole characters that I’d sort of forgotten or consolidated,” Fennell told Entertainment Weekly.

Among notable changes that viewers have noticed was the elimination of Mr. Lockwood’s character who serves as a frame narrator in the book. Fennel also did not include Hindley’s character in the movie and attached his characteristics to Earnshaw’s character.

Fennell’s Wuthering Heights loosely follows the first part of the book, without diving into the characters of the next generation or the ghosts of Catherine and Heathcliff, which debatably took away from the story as it is seen in the movie.

The director went on to explain her decisions, saying, “I think, really, I would do a miniseries and encompass the whole thing over 10 hours, and it would be beautiful. But if you’re making a movie, and you’ve got to be fairly tight, you’ve got to make those kinds of hard decisions.”