Trending Now: Why Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi’s ‘mutual obsession’ is giving some fans the ick – Fans React

The press trail for the new Wuthering Heights film has been a cocktail of flirtatious looks, Valentine’s Day roses and “mutual obsession” for leads Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.

The two play infamous literary lovers Cathy and Heathcliff in the upcoming adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel. And its themes of passion and obsession seem to have been echoed off camera too – with both stars indicating a close bond while promoting the film.

Wuthering Heights is the latest in a string of films where it’s been suggested romance rumours were used as promo: think Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell in Anyone But You, and Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in A Star is Born.

Robbie and Elordi may have successfully got us talking, but some fans have been left less than impressed with their behaviour, with one telling BBC News it gave her “the ick”, and another calling the display “weird and tacky”.

Some suspect the actors’ gushing words about each other may be just another cog in the film’s PR machine, especially given Robbie’s husband, Tom Ackerley, is one of its producers.

Have the stars’ supposedly intimate moments been designed to generate romance rumours (and social media buzz) around a movie some critics were less than glowing about? And has it worked?

A ‘mutual obsession’

Let’s start with what exactly Robbie and Elordi have said and done.

Throughout the press tour for Emerald Fennell’s hotly anticipated film, the two Aussie A-listers have been dishing out viral quotes.

In January, Robbie told Fandango that when her co-star wasn’t close by, “I felt quite lost like a kid without their blanket or something”. In the same interview, Elordi confessed he and Robbie had “a mutual obsession”, adding: “I was enamoured by her.”

Elsewhere, Robbie described how Elordi made her almost “weak at the knees” when he lifted her with one arm during one scene.

Then there was Elordi’s romantic gesture for Robbie during filming on Valentine’s Day.

“You made my day and, as Heathcliff, filled my room with roses and it was so cute,” Robbie told Elordi during a conversation with her co-star published in Vogue Australia.

“I remember thinking on Valentine’s Day, ‘Oh he’s probably a very good boyfriend, ’cause there’s a lot of thoughtfulness in this’,” she continued.

But Elordi seemed less on-message when I asked him whether this had really happened.

Speaking on the red carpet at the London premiere, he looked a bit startled and paused for a period, before answering: “Yes. Yes.”

Then there are the matching signet rings Robbie gifted to Elordi. They bear Brontë’s words: “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same”, according to their designer Cece Fein-Hughes.

What do fans think?

The romance rumours have been “effective in grabbing attention”, says film fan Rebecca Greene.

That said, Rebecca feels the display has gone too far, “especially given that the novel the movie is based on is not advertised as a romance at all”.

Ashlee-Rose Brisley, a 29-year-old actress and producer, agrees. “The trouble is, they’re trying to romanticise a dark and toxic story, so that is setting the audience up for a failure,” she says.

“They might walk into this film thinking it’s a light and fluffy romantic film, as they’ve seen it portrayed by the stars, when it’s actually a deeply troubling story.”

While manufactured romance rumours have always been rife in the celebrity world, Ashlee-Rose says the buzz around Elordi and Robbie has “got people’s back up” because “we know they’re not a couple”.

“This is a married woman with a child, so it comes across as very fake,” she tells BBC News.

“I’m totally irritated by the whole ‘we’re soulmates’ thing, I wish they’d just stop it,” says Keedy Perestroika.

“It cheapened the film for me,” agrees Gemma Haynes, while another fan, Nastassja Loots, says it “looks fake and people can see through it”.

Robbie, Elordi and Ackerley did not respond to a request for a comment.

Some fans have been more sympathetic.

“All I see is two people promoting a film and praising each other’s work,” said one Instagram user.

“I think it’s great they like working together,” said another.

For entertainment reporter Indigo Stafford, what we are seeing is “a mixture of both clever PR and method acting”.

“The dramatic declarations of mutual obsession for each other really got the public talking,” she says.

“[But] what saves the whole thing from being sinister is that Margot’s husband is one of the film’s producers! So if he’s not worried, neither should we be.”

Sydney and Glen, Pamela and Liam… We have been here before

Robbie and Elordi are far from the first actors to remain in character long after the cameras stop rolling.

Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper played love interests Ally and Jackson in A Star is Born, and their intimate performance at the 2019 Oscars sent the rumour mill into overdrive (though the singer was quick to shut this down).

More recently, romance rumours swirled around Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell as they promoted their 2023 romcom Anyone But You.

The same happened to Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson after they filmed last year’s The Naked Gun together. But in their case, the romantic connection was genuine, with Anderson later admitting the pair had, briefly, been “romantically involved” in real life.

“A publicity stunt? This is real. We have real feelings,” she told People.

And it’s not just romantic leads who have developed intense, highly publicised relationships.

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo frequently held hands, wore matching outfits and cried together on their Wicked press tour, sparking endless memes.

Reviews of Wuthering Heights have been decidedly mixed and content creator Amelia Buxton – who wrote an Instagram post calling the stars’ relationship the “PR romance no one asked for” – says this could be one reason for the potential marketing gimmick.

“Seeing some of the reviews, I believe that the movie itself isn’t as successful as they hoped, further proving that maybe they needed this PR narrative to get people to see it,” she says.

Meanwhile, Amy Brookbanks, a former showbiz editor turned PR expert, says some fans are starting to get “showmance fatigue”.

“Viewers and the media aren’t stupid. They can immediately spot the difference between an organic and a badly manufactured romance,” says Brookbanks, who now works at ad agency WPR.

“Unlike Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson, who kept fans guessing with very subtle and carefully curated public moments, or Sydney Sweeney who did it with a cheeky wink, Margot and Jacob have taken everything too far.”

Fatigue or not, there’s no doubt it seems to be working.

We’re all talking about it, it’s generating masses of viral content, and all the fans we spoke to said they’d still be watching the film – no matter how irritated they were by its press campaign.

“Of course, I’m going to go,” says Keedy. “I think Margot’s better than this, but I’m still a massive fan of hers, it’s out for Valentine’s Day, it’s perfect timing.”

“I will be likely to see the film in theatres,” adds Rebecca. “I do believe it is working for promotion.”

And when it comes down to it, actors – who are just colleagues at the end of the day – tend to move on when they have something new to promote.

Elordi is perhaps no different. Just this week, he was pictured “getting cosy” with his Euphoria co-star Sydney Sweeney at the Santa Barbara international film festival, prompting a flurry of headlines about his “new leading lady”.

Showmance, as they say, is fickle.

Wuthering Heights is out in UK cinemas now