Elordi says the “dark” scene depicts Heathcliff and Isabella “living in a kind of hell” together at Wuthering Heights.

Jacob Elordi and* *Alison Oliver address that shocking *Wuthering Heights *dog collar scene: ‘Off the deep end’

Elordi says the "dark" scene depicts Heathcliff and Isabella "living in a kind of hell" together at Wuthering Heights.

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and *NME*.

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February 16, 2026 9:00 a.m. ET

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Jacob Elordi and Alison Oliver in 'Wuthering Heights'. Credit:

**This article contains spoilers for Emerald Fennell's *Wuthering Heights*. ****

Jacob Elordi and Alison Oliver are digging into that decidedly dark dog collar scene in Emerald Fennell's *Wuthering Heights. ***

The shocking moment comes toward the end of the film, when Nelly (Hong Chau) visits Heathcliff (Elordi) and his wife, Isabella (Oliver), at Wuthering Heights. There, she finds the couple living in complete disarray, with Isabella chained to the fireplace, a dog collar around her neck. **

"That was so much fun, that scene. I think that was Emerald kind of taking the killing of the dog and these really dark parts of the novel and putting them into this scene," Elordi tells **, referencing an infamous scene in Emily Brontë's 1847 novel in which Heathcliff kills Isabella's dog.

Elordi in 'Wuthering Heights'.

He continues, “I had so much fun because it’s at that point that Isabella and Heathcliff are completely off the deep end. They’re living in a kind of hell, you know?” **

And it’s one that Heathcliff doesn’t mind living in as he attempts to claw his way back to his real love, Cathy (Margot Robbie). “For him, it’s a self-generated hell,” Elordi says. “It’s the moment that his obsession clicks over into something else — into a rabid desperation — and he loses any semblance of composure. It’s a nice point for the character, I think.”

Especially when his tried and true power plays don’t seem to be getting Cathy’s attention. “You can see it in his face when it’s Nelly at the door, and it’s not Cathy,” he says. “And it’s not working anymore, and the joke is over, which means it’s real, you know? And they have to face it.”

Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi on 'Wuthering Heights' 'complex' love story: 'Cathy's just such a bitch'

Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie are lustfully licking the walls in 'Wuthering Heights' trailer

Oliver adds that she spoke in depth with Fennell about what was running through Isabella's mind as they filmed the tragic third act. **

"I remember her saying something really interesting about like, 'Because [Isabella's] actually quite a repressed person, and because she's been so infantilized, anything that is repressed, when it comes out, it's messy and unorganized,'" she says. "And she's in a very unknown, strange, different place. A lot of that was just playing out the mess of the new place that she's in."

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The 28-year-old Irish actress recalls working with movement director Polly Bennett to tap into Isabella's dogged performance as she barks, pants, and winks at Nelly from her proverbial doghouse. **

An entire day on set was spent testing out different techniques until they found one that really highlighted Heathcliff and Isabella's "very complicated and strange" dynamic, Oliver says.

Alison Oliver in 'Wuthering Heights'.

The cheeky wink that Isabella gives Nelly, however, was a spur-of-the-moment idea that came to Fennell during filming. **

"We'd been shooting this scene all day, and I was like, 'What if we just get a little wink at the end?'" Fennell says. "And it's so camp, and it seems so out of sorts, but, of course, it was what we kept for the movie because it was so disturbing [and] because it was so at odds with what we were seeing, and yet it really explained everything." **

The writer-director notes that the dialogue in the scene was lifted almost "verbatim" from the book, which left her flabbergasted when she first read it as a teen.

"That scene in the book, I think that's the reason why [*Wuthering Heights*] was eviscerated when it came out because I think it was just so shocking to people," Fennell explains. "Because there's so much in what happens there that is… very, very complicated. Very transgressive — even for now, it's shocking. And, obviously, I visually added some things to that scene, but it is almost all Brontë."

*Wuthering Heights* is in theaters now.

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