When Emerald Fennell reached out to Alison Oliver about joining her latest project, the response was instant and unequivocal. The Irish actor didn’t need convincing—working with Fennell again was reason enough to say yes. Oliver speaks about their relationship with genuine warmth, explaining how Fennell’s passion for Emily Brontë’s novel has been a constant thread in their friendship since they first met. Watching someone you care about realize a dream project creates its own kind of excitement, and getting the invitation to be part of that journey only amplified it.

Fennell’s WUTHERING HEIGHTS is now in theaters, and it’s important to understand what this film isn’t trying to be. Rather than a dutiful page-to-page translation of the Gothic classic, this adaptation chases something more elusive and personal—the visceral impact the book had on Fennell when she first encountered it as a teenager. That distinction matters, and the filmmaker has been transparent about her intentions from the start. The quotation marks surrounding the title aren’t an accident but a signal of this approach. With an original soundtrack from Charli XCX anchoring the emotional landscape, the film remains rooted in eighteenth-century England while following Cathy Earnshaw through the devastating trajectory that begins when her father brings the mysterious Heathcliff into their home.

Oliver takes on Isabella Linton, the sheltered ward of Edgar Linton, who becomes Cathy’s husband. This Isabella exists in a protected bubble of privilege and innocence, someone who has been insulated from hardship and consequently lives for surfaces and pleasures. She initially views Cathy as something like a fascinating new acquisition, a companion to adorn her world, but that dynamic shifts violently when Heathcliff enters their orbit and both women find themselves pulled into his gravitational field. The transformation from playmate to rival becomes one of the film’s central tensions.

For those keeping track of Oliver’s career, this reunion with Fennell follows her breakout in the Sally Rooney adaptation CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS and her turn in the HBO crime series TASK. But there’s something different about returning to work with a director who already knows your instincts, who has seen what you can do and specifically wants that particular alchemy again. The trust implicit in that kind of creative relationship allows for a different kind of risk-taking, a willingness to push further into uncomfortable territory because the foundation is already solid. Oliver’s Isabella isn’t just another period drama ingénue—she’s a portrait of what happens when someone who has never been tested suddenly finds themselves in emotional waters far deeper and darker than anything they could have imagined.