Given that one is an Australian movie star and the other is an acclaimed British director and both are current toasts of Hollywood, it seems more than plausible that Esquire cover star Jacob Elordi (the former) and Emerald Fennell (the latter) are likely to exist at any one moment in different time zones, possibly hemispheres. But very quickly into a video call between the pair it becomes apparent that they are both in London and, actually, less than a mile apart.

Fennell is at the Warner Bros office in Soho on the final day of post-production on Wuthering Heights, her feverishly anticipated film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, in which Elordi plays its antihero, Heathcliff, opposite the Australian actress Margot Robbie as its antiheroine, Cathy. Elordi is just down the road at a London hotel — the reason for which he remains charmingly enigmatic about — though it may have something to do with his committed turn as Frankenstein’s monster in Mexican director Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, for which he has just, at the time of their conversation, been nominated for a Golden Globe.

This is no great surprise to those who have seen Frankenstein, or been tracking the career progress of the 28-year-old from Brisbane, who grew up with three older sisters to parents who spent their time in regular, un-showbizzy ways (his mother, Melissa, looked after the family and father, John, was a house painter). In recent years, he has moved beyond his early breaks in the industry — teen-dreamboat roles that took full advantage of his wistful eyes and enviable jawline — and become a more interesting, challenging proposition.

Those early parts included three movies of romantic-comedy franchise The Kissing Booth, and HBO’s wildly popular (and significantly more dysfunctional) teen drama Euphoria, in which he’ll appear again this year as the abusive and manipulative jock Nate Jacobs. In 2023, Elordi played a magnetic, brutish Elvis Presley in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla; last year he starred in a searing TV adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North. But the role that up-ended his reputation and changed the course of his professional life was Saltburn.

It’s fair to say Elordi owes a debt to Fennell for casting him in that movie — or at least feels that he does. Her irrepressibly twisted 2023 drama follows a scholarship student at Oxford, played by the Irish actor Barry Keoghan, who becomes obsessed with an alluring and privileged classmate, Felix Catton, played by Elordi, before inveigling his way into his life (and, in one highly memorable scene, his recently vacated bathtub). Saltburn showed what Elordi could really do: satirise deftly, seduce irresistibly and convince utterly. A very modern kind of leading man was born.

While watching him on set, Fennell, who is 40 years old and has worked successfully as an actress herself, had a revelation: Elordi would be perfect for Heathcliff in Brontë’s gothic tale of doomed love and haunting cruelty — her passion project — and later put the question to him. Fennell’s Wuthering Heights looks, from the scenes we’ve watched, not to mention the trailer and magnetic Charli xcx soundtrack, like it will be dark and beautiful and sexy and deeply, bruisingly romantic. Unsurprisingly, Elordi quickly said yes.

Today there are no heaving bodices or mutton chops on display. Fennell, ebullient, quick to joke, with a checked shirt and centre-parted blonde hair, is fending off a cold and brandishing a large Warner Bros-branded mug. Elordi, shy and smiley, wearing a black quarter-zip with mussed up hair, has a tiny espresso cup in his hand. (If there’s one other thing that the strapping actor is known for, as per his well-papped love of large bags and tiny watches, it’s messing with scale.)

It doesn’t look like they’ll be able to meet in person this time, but no matter. It’s immediately clear that their personal bond — as well as a no-doubt hefty promotional schedule for the movie that will surely see them sharing time-zones and hemispheres — has long since been sealed.

Emerald Fennell: OK, so number-one question: Jacob, is this your favourite film you’ve ever seen?

Jacob Elordi: Yes, and it’s also my favourite film I’ve been in.

EF: Thank you. OK, so because these interviews can be a little unusual, because it’s two people who know each other quite well talking, but publicly, I’m going to do what I do at a dinner party when I sit next to somebody who I think is going to be hard to crack. I’ve got my go-to questions. I’ve asked you the first question, but I’m going to start like this: Jacob, have you ever seen a ghost?

JE: Yes, I have. I have seen a ghost. I saw a ghost in Dubai.

EF: [Spits out the contents of her mug] Sorry, Dubai?!

JE: It’s the title of my memoir: I Saw a Ghost in Dubai.

EF: It’s too chic of a place for a ghost.

JE: It was a chic ghost. I was travelling to Dubai with my dad because I won a Fashions on the Fields event and I had brought the box set of Supernatural season three…

EF: Hang on…

JE: At the Melbourne Cup, the horse racing, they have this thing called Fashions on the Field, which is basically people wearing suits and fedoras and lining up with a number in front of these judges. My mother was intent on me being a model or an actor — it was one or the other — because she thought that both meant you would be Magic Mike.

EF: And your mum wanted that for you?

(Jacket, shirt, jumper, belt, all Miu Miu. Trousers, Acne Studios)

JE: The thing was that the judges were from Home and Away. I must have been 16 or so, and I thought that if I could stand in front of these judges and wow them with my charisma, I would get a spot on Home and Away. The prize was business-class flights to Dubai and spending money, and I won Fashions on the Fields not once, but twice! And I went to Dubai twice!

EF: So that’s the context.

JE: Yeah, that’s the context for my ghost. So I went to Dubai with my dad, and I was laying on the coach watching the Supernatural box set and I’d fallen asleep. At around 3am, this spectral shape appeared, this kind of white, drapey thing. My stomach dropped out of my body.

EF: How long did it stay?

JE: It felt like three seconds but could have been a flash.

EF: Did it change your view of the afterlife? Did it change your perspective philosophically?

JE: I don’t know if it changed my philosophy, but I’ve felt pretty nervous since then.

EF: Do you think it was a threat? A warning? Do you think it was one of your giant handbags? There were lots of hauntings when we were making Wuthering Heights. It was back-to-back hauntings, but we kept things from the actors because you’re such sensitive characters.

JE: A frightful bunch.

EF: A fearful, scared, skittish bunch. But we were all haunted constantly. It was really weird because it felt so right. We stayed in lots of beautiful hotels in Yorkshire and in one hotel, me and Linus [Sandgren], the cinematographer, had bedrooms next door to one another. One night, I kept on waking up with someone tapping on my forehead.

JE: It was just me asking for monologues.

EF: “Can I get coverage? Make sure people see how tall I am.” But this thing tapping me on the forehead wanted me to put the television on. It was very insistent. In my mind I was like, “I’m sorry, I can’t put the telly on, I’ve got to be up really early in the morning.” The next day I went down for breakfast and told the crew. Then Linus came down five minutes later and said, “It’s so fucking weird” — I’m not going to do the Swedish accent — “I couldn’t sleep last night because the television kept turning on and off.” This kind of stuff happened all the time, which is to say that I think we were very in touch with the spiritual world while making this film. Did you feel in touch with the spiritual world while making this film, Jacob?

JE: Yeah, something peculiar that happened while we were filming was when Siân [Miller], the make-up artist, was designing the scars from the whips for Heathcliff’s back. She challenged me: “If Daniel Day-Lewis was playing Heathcliff, he would have come in with scars.” I said, “Well I’m going to go away and maim myself on the weekend to prove to you that I’m Heathcliff!” That night I went home, and the house I was staying in had a steam shower: a brass knob that steam came from out of the wall; I was sitting on the floor of the shower…

EF: You were sitting on the floor?!

JE: The full story is that, when I was doing Frankenstein, I had so much make-up in my fingers and in my feet all the time, and I left it on for the whole shoot because I couldn’t be bothered washing it all off. As Heathcliff, I was covered in mange and dirt, and I thought, “I’m not going to do that again, I’m going to clean my feet properly every night and come in to work fresh the next day.” So I went to clean my feet, and I leant back and my back seared into the steam knob and I stood up screaming; it tore up my back. When I went to work on Monday I had a second-degree burn.

EF: I think that was in the first week of shooting. I got a text from Josey McNamara, the producer, saying, “Jacob’s in hospital.” Obviously I thought, “Oh my god, he’s had a car accident,” and then he was like, “He’s burnt his back in the shower.” I was like, “You know what, Josey? Start with that.” Do you think it was the spirit of Daniel Day-Lewis?

JE: It was actual Daniel Day-Lewis. In the shower. But I did feel something spiritual when we got to the Moors for the first time, when we stepped out in our costumes on this endless plain. You can see where the book came from when you’re there. You can feel it.

EF: So anyway, you wanted to be an actor so badly that you tarted yourself up to go to the races, to show them a bit of leg.

JE: By the way, that’s all anyone does in Hollywood. That’s how this works.

EF: It’s the literal dog-and-pony show. But this is interesting to me because you are such a modest person. When I first met you for Saltburn I was so intrigued by you, because it feels to me that your spirit and your love of performing are very much at odds. How did you know you wanted to do this, given it comes with a lot of complicated stuff?

JE: I had a lot more courage when I was a teenager, which is when I first went on stage. At that point it was the feeling of doing something that wasn’t sports-oriented and getting praised for it. But the thing that made me want to act was when I read Waiting for Godot.

EF: Really?

JE: I suppose, if I look at it now, I was having an existential crisis at 15, in a Catholic boys’ school, because I couldn’t comprehend the rules and the system of the school; my idea of what was true and moral just didn’t align. When I read Waiting for Godot it was so absurd and empty and futile and hopeful at the same time. I saw that a text could mirror your experience, but in a far-out kind of way. I started reading plays, and then I found movies after that, and then filmmakers, and I realised there were certain movies that achieve the same thing and articulate these feelings that I had. And then I just wanted to be a part of it.

EF: Which movies can you remember?

JE: When I watched [Steve McQueen’s] Shame with Michael Fassbender for the first time was when I started to understand a different kind of movie.

EF: I was the same about [Todd Solondz’s] Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse. I was at boarding school and I found it very restrictive. The only way out was through watching subversive films or reading subversive books. The thing about cinema and theatre that’s great is they are kind of voyeuristic, they’re permissive, they let you do things. If you’re at a very strict school, plays are the only time you can swear and, like, touch people. Looking back, it’s kind of weird the amount of touching that was allowed.

JE: So much touching.

EF: So OK, we first met when talking about Saltburn, but I wasn’t allowed to talk about Saltburn. So we had that meeting. What do you remember about that?

JE: I don’t think I’d ever had a general with a director at that point.

EF: A general is like a “vibe check”.

JE: You had won an Academy Award for your previous screenplay [for Promising Young Woman, Fennell’s 2020 debut movie], so it was very hush-hush.

EF: It was hush-hush, but also I like to do a “cunt check” before I work with anyone. To make something good, everyone has to be super comfortable, not just the stars. You also want to make sure somebody isn’t too vulnerable. When I first met you, Euphoria had just fucking exploded and suddenly you were not just famous, but the really dangerous kind of famous: heartthrob famous. People were going feral. You want to make sure somebody’s in a space where they’re safe to do some work. I don’t want to work with anyone who’s not well, and a lot of people in this industry aren’t well because it’s very scary. So when we met, I was so impressed by how lovely and clever and normal you were. Do you still feel lovely and clever and normal? You don’t have to answer that, by the way.

EF: When I first met you, Euphoria had just fucking exploded and suddenly you were not just famous, but the really dangerous kind of famous: heartthrob famous. People were going feral.

JE: Actually, do you know what I would say… I had a moment. I’d run out of energy creatively or something and needed a break. But I feel quite re-energised again. I saw Wuthering Heights recently, and Frankenstein has just come out, and I’m seeing the results of these labours that I thought may have just been pissing in the wind.

EF: [Laughs]

JE: Ha, no! Like, I can go away and come up with something in my head, but
I never quite see the spoils of it. Euphoria for me felt like acting for my life. The Kissing Booth felt like acting for my life. These were my first jobs, and I remember sitting at home being like, “You cannot miss one second of this opportunity.” So that enthusiasm came from the desire to be an actor, whereas Wuthering Heights is one of the first films where I’ve done things and seen the result. I’m quite elated now to have seen the result, and seen deliberate choices play out. I guess I’m just applauding myself, haha!

EF: But that’s OK!

JE: The point being, it makes me feel more fun and free and normal, because I’m excited to see what else can happen in movies. The blessing of being able to work with you twice is that I’ve seen what happens. I read Saltburn, but when I saw the first cut of the movie, it was electric. So even though I don’t know what the end result will be, because I trust you, because I like your movies, it doesn’t even matter if it’s your worst movie ever. Because the decision I’ve made is personal: I want to see this through with you. So for me, the whole process of filmmaking died when we finished on the Moors. Like, I’m going to sell the movie…

EF: You’d fucking better, mate.

JE: Big time! But for me it’s already done and it’s already been a success. And Margot… Margot! She just creeps in.

EF: Did you just say Margot by mistake?

JE: Yeah, it just happens.

EF: The thing is, I have looked at her face for the last year, and I still want to look at this face for the rest of my life. She’s so talented it’s a joke.

JE: When we were having beers the other night I was waiting for my turn when she would come and sit next to me as she moved around the table.

EF: I know! You’re hoping she’ll waft past and come and bless you. We’re all waiting in line, aren’t we? Like Princess Diana shaking hands.

JE: I met you first at the LuckyChap office [Robbie’s company, a producer of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Promising Young Woman].

EF: You sure did.

JE: I just remember there were Barbie things everywhere. I’d seen Promising Young Woman, but I hadn’t got to meet film makers yet, and I felt like somebody was taking a chance on me beyond the work I had done before; had interest in me as a — quote, unquote — serious actor. We had this great meeting, and then you told me to come and read for you in the room when I was passing through London: to act for real, to find the scene, to try it different ways. I actually got to act again because of Saltburn.

EF: It was the best audition. I don’t know how to say this without becoming really unflattering, but you were unafraid to be cringe as Felix. Everyone else came in with an unlit ciggy, and they were fucking louche and sexy and doing this sort of Brideshead thing. You came in and you were every boy I’d ever met in a shit provincial nightclub. What was acknowledged so observantly was that those kinds of boys don’t have to be cool because they’re so fit and so rich and they’re actually kind of dorks and you don’t care. We talked a lot about the fact that he’d be really bad at sex. “Fuck, she had the best five seconds of her life!” Being able to do that with someone and have fun was so great. When you said yes to Wuthering Heights had you even read the script? Or did I just text you?

JE: No, I was in Indonesia, and you just WhatsApped me, “Wanna play Heathcliff?” And I wrote back, “Yeah.” And then you said, “Cool, I’ll send you the script.” And that was it.

EF: And that’s how dreams are made. You did send me my favourite ever picture, which was a picture of the script covered in your tears. The most emo thing…

JE: Ha! I was in an Airbnb in Santa Barbara because I took myself away to read the script. I was sitting on the back porch having a coffee and I read the last scene and I just… leaked. I was leaking all over the screenplay and I sent you a picture. I’m pretty sure everyone else in the cast had a similar…

EF: No! Haha. That’s why I love working with you, because you’re really honest about your feelings. And that was the aim of this movie: to make everyone cry so much that they would throw up.

JE: I watched it with Mum last week and we were both looking at each other, and I shouldn’t say this, because it’s me in the movie, but my head was aching. We wanted to stop weeping but couldn’t because it’s relentlessly sad and sensitive and very personal from you.

EF: He’s trying to imply that I have emotions.

JE: I remember we were texting when the film was going somewhere, and when you chose to make the film at Warner Bros and turn down an enormous sum of money — which is no secret, it’s in the press — so that the film could go to cinemas. It’s why, when you say, “Wanna play Heathcliff?” I say “Yes.” Guillermo talks a lot about this, but the feeling of emotion and beauty is something we really need now.

EF: We do need communal experiences. After Covid, everyone wants to go and connect. It’s why Charli [xcx]’s music for this is so amazing. Everyone wants to go dance. One of the first cinema experiences I ever had was watching My Girl and it destroyed my life. It was my birthday and I was five or six. I was like, “Why did you do this to me? You let me see Macaulay Culkin, the boy of my dreams — spoiler alert — get stung to death by a swarm of bees while getting the love of his life’s mood ring.” It’s evil. But from that to Titanic to [Baz Luhrmann’s] Romeo + Juliet to Armageddon, if you please, that experience of going into a packed theatre and all of you fucking crying and feeling sexy and having an experience, it’s about bringing back that feeling. It gives me the ick whenever someone says, “I use ChatGPT.” It’s like, “Grow up, get a pen and write something down. Make something.”

JE: We’ve designed this thing that has tricked young people and made them all addicted to a new form of content and a new form of life and then we blame them for it. But I think they’re going to turn around and want more, because they’re human beings and they have millions of years of evolution and human history and culture; real things are in their DNA. And when they do turn around, it’s everyone’s job to make sure that there’s things there for them to digest. Does that make sense? That’s a terrible way of explaining it, but that’s how I feel about movies now particularly.

EF: It’s also so that they can participate. Wuthering Heights was 600 people, maybe more, constructing stuff from scratch. Their work is real and specific and detailed and that’s the pleasure of it, as long as we can keeping making stuff.

JE: It’s important to say that it’s important just because.

EF: Just because. But also, crucially, it’s sexy, fun and cool.

JE: All I want to do! Sexy, fun and cool.

JE: I try to make sure I’ve turned every stone and looked in every corner before playing a character, but the truth is you can’t.

EF: When I heard your origin story of wearing your suit to win the trip, and maybe this is not fair given that you seem so cool, but I would say that in your soul you’re not cool.

JE: Yes.

EF: And I feel that is the best place to make something because it means you’re unafraid.

JE: But I feel very afraid. The older I get, the more nervous I get, and I was afraid of Wuthering Heights; it was a big movie, and the crew was big and the sets were big.

EF: Yes, and also Margot is the biggest star in the world and you’re playing opposite each other. It’s fucking big. I came to work some days and was like, “Shit, I’m in charge of this.”

JE: I try to make sure I’ve turned every stone and looked in every corner before playing a character, but the truth is you can’t. But the fear comes from: have I looked enough? Have I studied enough? Have I read enough? Because, like you said, there’s 600 people there that have put so much work and effort in, who’ve toiled and waited and not seen their families, and then you need to come in and put a layer onto the cake. There is a pressure that you’re not going to be what people want you to be. There will probably always be an imposter element to acting for me, just because I dreamt about it so intensely that it almost feels like it couldn’t have happened.

EF: For me, it’s always about working with people — and Jacob, you’re absolutely this thing distilled — who want to go. Who want to take risks. I want to put my foot on something and push down until it squeaks. It’s the squeaking point: you push too hard, you kill it; you don’t push hard enough, it doesn’t squeak. Jacob, for all your beauty and all of your enormous height that we shan’t mention, the thing is you’re actually a little fucking weirdo. What you want to do is get interesting and sticky and dark, and that’s what this movie is. It’s fucking romantic and it’s also kind of hardcore. You don’t really get actors who do that. Especially not ones like Jacob.

JE: That’s what I’ve been attracted to my whole life: people who think in a specific way and do something about it. Just you saying “foot on the throat till it squeaks” — that’s why, you know?

EF: Well, this has been a joy. Oh no! I didn’t get to ask you my final question that I also do when I sit next to somebody. OK! Final one. Interpret it however you want. Are you a liar, a cheat or a thief?

JE: [Pause] Liar.

EF: Yeah.

Photography by James Harvey-Kelly

Styling by Ben Schofield

Originally published by Esquire UK

Hair and grooming: Jillian Halouska at The Wall Group, using Sisley Paris and Hair Rituel. Set design: Josh Stovell at Lalaland Artists. Tailor: Nafisa Tosh. Set assistants: Lily McIlrath, Angus Whitehorn. Stylist’s assistants: Samela Gjozi, Ella Bacon