Emma Mackey shines as the Wuthering Heights author in the new biopic directed by Frances O’Connor. The wild, windswept Yorkshire moors are captured in the film’s official trailer.
Frances O’Connor is making her debut as a writer-director with Emily, a biopic aiming to explore the life of Emily Brontë, author of Wuthering Heights. Emma Mackey, star of Sex Education, Eiffel and Greta Gerwig’s upcoming film Barbie will play Brontë. Alongside Mackey, Oliver Jackson-Cohen will play William Weightman, an individual both enthralled and baffled by Brontë’s writing ability.
The trailer for Emily is bleak, windswept and full of emotion. Emily shouts “freedom in thought” with her older brother whilst overlooking the dramatic rural landscape–the film’s sentiment is encompassed. As the closing shot of the trailer captures the first page of Wuthering Heights turning, it’s clear that this biopic will aim to focus on the moments leading up to such a significant novel. The controversy surrounding the book’s content at the time of its publication in 1847 is sure to play a key role in the film’s plot.
Mackey studied English Language and Literature in Yorkshire, at the University of Leeds. The actress has previously expressed a love of Wuthering Heights and an affinity with Brontë, according to O’Connor.
The trailer reveals O’Connor’s imagined understanding of how the film’s focal Brontë sister came to write Wuthering Heights. Though she was known for being relatively private in real life, Emily’s trailer clearly maintains a much more dramatic backstory for the writer’s most famous work.
In an interview with The Telegraph, O’Connor stated that “people like Brontë historians will probably say, ‘Well, that didn’t happen.’” The trailer exemplifies this attempt to divert from historical accuracy and overt period drama tropes, instead prioritising an emphasis on emotional nuance and the vivid aesthetic of the Yorkshire moors.
Amelia Gething and Emily Beecham will play Anne and Charlotte Brontë respectively. Fionn Whitehead, who previously starred in the 2017 film Dunkirk, will also play Branwell Brontë, portrayed in the film’s trailer as encouraging his sister to explore the depths of her immense literary talent.
Emily will be released in cinemas on 14 October.
Words by Charlotte Grimwade
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