Kharmel Cochrane, the casting director behind Emerald Fennell's adaptation of Emily Brontë's beloved Wuthering Heights,has defended the controversial decision to assign the film's leading roles to Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, who will play Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, respectively, after news of their involvement drew significant criticism from literary enthusiasts. According to Cochrane, there is no "need to be accurate" with details such as the characters' appearances, since the source materialis "just a book."

During a recent Q&a session at the Sands Film Festival in Scotland, attended by Deadline, Cochrane said, at the height of the backlash, she encountered "one Instagram comment that said the casting director should be shot" in reference to Robbie and Elordi headlining the upcoming Wuthering Heights movie. However, she encouraged fans of the gothic romance novel to not be too hasty in their judgment of the silver screen's star-crossed lovers. She...