Emerald Fennel’s Wuthering Heights is a stunning modern reinterpretation of the Emily Bronte classic. The film captured the harsh cruelty of unrequited love and the pain people will inflict to get who they desire. This film may be polarizing to book purists, but it can capture the hearts of young audiences encountering this story for the first time just as Baz Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet resonated with millennials.
In anticipation of the most talked about film, we spoke to actor Shazad Latif who plays Edgar Linton. Edgar Linton is the aristocrat who marries Catherine and drives a wedge between her and Heathcliff’s tragic romance. Wuthering Heights premieres on February 13.
Daphne Mangin: If you got to have one room of Thrushcross Grange, which one are you choosing?
Shazad Latif: I mean my bedroom is pretty spectacular. It had the fiery walls and the green— it had the tortoise which I loved. I actually did have a nap in that bed as well so I’ll stick to my room.
DM: I enjoyed your portrayal of Edgar that humanizes him in a more sympathetic light and less of an annoying foil to Heathcliff and Catherine. What was your take on what’s going on internally with him?
SL: I supposed there’s lots of stuff you do in preparation and discussions you have with Emerald with what his backstory is and what his internal conflict would be and why he would be. In my mind, he was someone who had done well for himself, but there’s the pain of growing up. And being someone like that back then, he would have to be more gentlemanly, the most English gentleman he could be as a distraction and if he keeps really well, he keeps and environment for himself that safe to keep everything wild away, and keep everything up. So he’s found his factory up North and he’s just protecting everything he’s got. He’s got his ward, but he infantilizes it. He keeps everything in glass cases so it’s all to do with protection and distraction so he doesn’t get hurt inside.
DM: I heard you had an unconventional audition where you got to chat with Emerald a good amount prior to the casting director arriving that you credit with helping you land the role. What did you two talk about? Follow up: what your worst audition?
SL: Yeah I just think it was less of a— normally you just go into a room and there’s five other people there. There’s a casting director, there’s a camera and you sort of have to just jump into the audition and it’s a sort of awkward chat in front of people. Whereas this, we were just sitting outside and on the sofa and just got to talk; find out what her take was going to be and what her plan was and it was just a more relaxed conversation. I think it just helped. We got to talk about how I knew the book and the film from years ago. So I think it was just more relaxed, just less pressure on the situation.
DM: That has to be your best audition experience. Do you mind sharing one of your worst?
SL: I mean every time you don’t get the job, you’re the worst actor ever or—I mean there’s thousands. There’s just ones where you forget lines or just the energy’s not right. The nerves—and when you’re just starting out as an actor. There’s countless of we fail more than we generally succeed numbers wise. They’re all embarrassing, they’re all terrible, all awful.
DM: I know that you have a theater background and a lot of scenes in the film reminded me of watching a play. Did you approach this more as if you were acting in a play or is there no difference between how you approach a play versus a film?
SL: Generally in theater, the rehearsal process is different. We did get a chance to rehearse together so I suppose that was a similar to a theater rehearsal. We had a good month before so we’d run scenes individually— me and Margo, me and Allison, me and Jacob. We’d then play the script out like that so that was very similar to a theater rehearsal. Generally I don’t find as much difference in all the prep that you’re doing. I suppose the only difference is in the way that you’re filming. Because it was such a small cast, we did felt like we built these nice relationships from the start to the end, which is a similarity.
DM: When doing your character study, were there any unconventional sources you looked into for inspiration?
SL: You sort of just jump into anything and everything you can find really. You start off with the books, you start off with the script, watch the old movies and just surround yourself with everything you can. Nothing crazy unconventional, but things do come, images and when you’re figuring out voice and movement. When you put together the costumes, everything just comes together the closer you get. I would just spend a lot of time in my room talking to myself [laughs] generally.
DM: What there a scene in the film you found particularly challenging?
SL: There’s always a few scenes that are hard. Big emotional scenes where in the back of your head you’re like— but I trusted Emerald. The last scene between me and Jacob, we were just so in the zone we went in our own separate corners and we were just trying to feel the horror of what that situation would be, but there were giant fans blowing so we knew we’d have to rerecord this scene in ADR so that was funny, but it was also a very beautiful scene. The scene with the leeches with Margot was…. I always find that waking up scenes are always hard—my character was asleep so he’s got to wake up and be shocked and the camera was up high and with the blocking. There’s always little technical things that are fun to figure out, but that’s the beauty of filming days, just figuring out ways of getting over the obstacles.
