Maybe you forgot that Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie were cast as Heathcliff and Cathy in Emerald Fennell’s impending adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Maybe you dismissed it as a fever dream. Maybe it just didn’t make sense.
Get ready to be jolted back into awareness — and maybe even acceptance — because Jacob Elordi just rocked up to the BAFTAs with two lean cuts of meat as his date. Yes, the boy’s gone and got mutton chops.
Ever a fan of asking the question ‘Just how far can I push people’s boundaries of being attracted to me?’, Elordi arrived at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards yesterday evening rocking his brand new facial hair, a shaggy mop top and a black Bottega Veneta suit.
The suit was appropriately Brontë-bait, too, with a high-waisted pair of tailored black pants, a loose-fit jacket and an open shirt with a dainty red enamel pin. And to top it all off, a thin silver chain was peeking out of the actor’s shirt, seamlessly blending 2020s leading man with Georgian loverboy.
Elordi is no stranger to long sideburns: he previously rocked them for Saltburn, which successfully showcased the best and worst style of 2006. Nor is he a stranger to divisive facial hair, having debuted a very unexpected full-bearded look last November at the Marrakech International Film Festival.
But it’s fair to say that his Heathcliff look has taken things a step further, not least because Elordi has grown out a full mop of wavy hair to match the length of his mutton chops.
Elordi is currently on the promo trail for his new film The Narrow Road to the Deep North. The film, which is based on the 2014 Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name, follows the story of Dorrigo Evans (Elordi), an Australian doctor who is haunted by memories of a love affair with his uncle's wife and by his experiences as a Far East prisoner of war.
But Elordi’s other incoming projects are the ones that seem to be stirring loins. As well as taking on the role of Heathcliff, the archetypal tortured anti-hero of Wuthering Heights, he is also set to star alongside Daisy Edgar Jones and Diego Calva in steamy 1950s drama On Swift Horses, where Calva and Elordi will play love interests.
While we don’t know the release date of On Swift Horses, we do know that Wuthering Heights was scheduled to start filming in 2025 in the UK, so it makes sense that Elordi would be demonstrating his best sideburns and shaggy hair right around now. The jury is still out on whether we all approve, though.
