Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of film—and for the most part, critics are falling in the “hate it” camp.
The new adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel is catching flak as critics say it oversimplifies a complex story of generational trauma and racial tension into a straightforward romance laced with Fennell’s signature shock value (she’s also the director behind Promising Young Woman and Saltburn—infamous bathtub scene and all). But a recent comment from star and producer Margot Robbie takes criticism out of the equation, instead saying that as an artist, critics’ opinions never cross her mind.
At a recent panel for Vogue Australia, Robbie—given her dual role as producer and leading actress—was asked how much she thinks about her audience while making a movie, as opposed to immersing herself in the story.
“I consider audience always. I’ve never, ever been on set and thought, ‘What are the critics going to think of this?’” Robbie replied. “I’m like, ‘What’s an audience going to feel right now? What’s their emotional response going to be?’
“I just believe you should make movies for the people who are going to buy tickets to see the movies,” Robbie added. “It’s kind of as simple as that.”
Robbie has produced all three of Fennell’s films, but Wuthering Heights is the first she appears in. “I love working with Emerald [Fennell] because she always prioritizes an emotional experience over a heady idea,” Robbie said. “She’ll let a cool idea fall by the wayside to offer the option that is going to be most exciting for an audience.”
Robbie’s take was immediately divisive online. Some fellow filmmakers, including Cobra Kai writer and director Jon Hurwitz, echoed Robbie’s sentiment. “This is the way. Audience first. Always,” Hurwitz wrote in a post on X.
But others took issue with Robbie’s reading, noting that it frames films more as commercial products than as works of art—not to mention that critics are audience members themselves.
Critic and editor-in-chief of AwardsWatch Erik Anderson pointed out that “actors and directors never say this when their films get good reviews” in his own response to Robbie’s statement.
On Rotten Tomatoes, Wuthering Heights is currently labeled “rotten,” with a critic score of 59%. In his review, The New Yorker’s Justin Chang deemed the adaptation “extravagantly superficial.” For The Guardian, Adrian Horton dubbed it a “big movie with a very small mind.” And in a take that went viral, Vulture’s Allison Willmore called the film “Fennell’s dumbest movie,” while also praising it as “her best to date.”
That appeal to the lowest common denominator is working for Wuthering Heights, at least on a commercial level. The film made $83 million globally over the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend, debuting as the number-one movie in North America. Robbie’s audience-first philosophy clearly gets butts in seats—but if every creative ditches their “heady ideas” in favor of broad appeal, the future of film as an art form doesn’t look quite as promising.