Last Valentine’s Day, Alison Oliver found herself embroiled in one of the world’s greatest love stories, portraying Isabella Linton in Emerald Fennell’s seductive adaptation of Wuthering Heights. A foil in the sexually charged dynamic of Heathcliff and Catherine – portrayed by Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie respectively – Alison’s performance effortlessly encapsulates the trappings of 19th century sexual repression, morphing into a girl endlessly infantilised by her family – yearning for liberation.

On screen, the innate drama of Emily Brontë’s fervent storytelling is immortalised in Emerald’s Caravaggesque cinematography, punctuating the rural moors of West Yorkshire with scenes of debauchery and indulgence in the shadowy corridors and sweeping enfilades of Thrushcross Grange. Wuthering Heights also marks Alison’s reunion with Emerald, following her unforgettable role in the director’s salacious black comedy Saltburn, where bleach-blonde hair, fake tan, and purple disco pants transformed Alison into the daring yet vulnerable Venetia Catton.

As both the tortured paramour and naïve damsel, Margot and Alison form a charged on-screen dialogue, embodying the fated women of Brontë’s gothic universe. With Margot also stepping into the role of producer, that relationship extends beyond the frame – her presence shaping the project while watching Alison’s transformative process from audition to wrap.

Alison Oliver: Yay, hello.

Margot Robbie: Hey! How’re you doing? Are you in New York right now?
AO: I’ve just arrived.

MR: When I first moved to America, I did a TV show called Pan Am, and it shot in New York – well, in Brooklyn. So I lived in Brooklyn. Then The Wolf of Wall Street the following year was shot in New York, so I was back there again for like another seven months. I love it. Have you ever lived in New York?
AO: I’ve never lived in New York, but I lived in Philadelphia last year, and I used to pretend like I lived in New York. I would get the Amtrak on the weekends, and I would pick an area and just walk around for the day. I would love to live here someday.

MR: I love it so much. I feel like when I lived in New York, I just never knew what was going to happen every day. I’d leave the house and I wouldn’t know if I was going to be back 45 minutes later or, like, fifteen hours later. There’s so much happening all the time. It’s such a spontaneous way to exist. It’s so the opposite in LA, I find, and you can find comfort in that as well.
AO: It’s really interesting, how the energy of a city affects how you feel in it. Whenever I’m here, I feel like I’m sprinting towards my life. [laughs] I’m on the streets, and I’m just running – like, why am I running? [laughs] There’s just this energy and you’re like, “Oh my God, what’s going to happen?” It’s just the best.

“I think some parts choose you. A lot of it is where you’re at in your life at that time, and why you can tell that story right now.”

MR: Where else would you want to live?
AO: It really changes. Sometimes I want that life, and then sometimes I’m like, I’m going to build a cottage on the most westerly part of Ireland, actually, on one of the islands, and I’m going to be a recluse. I really jump between wanting to be where I am right now, in the centre of New York, to being so isolated. We’re lucky in that sense, that our job allows us to try different places. It’s like you get to try out different versions of a life. I think I always gravitate towards change. If I’m in London loads I will then start suddenly craving home, but then if I’m in Cork for too long, I’m like, “Oh my god, I need to go back.” So I don’t know if I can ever see myself sticking in one location forever.

MR: I completely agree. One of my favourite things about our job is getting to travel around so much, but it’s not travelling in the sense that you’re in a city for five days and do a couple of things – it’s living somewhere. Like you said, you try on this life because you’re there for a couple of months. You start having your routine and your spot, and it becomes familiar in a more solid way – and then you’re gone again. I feel like every city I live in for every different movie is how I bookmark my life. I can’t really remember what year things happened, but I’m like, “Oh, that’s when we were living in…” And that’s such an amazing gift, to have these separate, totally distinctive lives. And we get to have many of them.
AO: Yes, because you’re also playing a character while you’re there. So you also sort of are a different person, too. It’s really strange. Now that I’ve been doing it for a few years and I love it so much, I can’t imagine stopping. It can be so intoxicating to keep moving.

MR: Where did you shoot for the Emily Mortimer film [Dennis]?
AO: We shot that in Budapest.

MR: Have you shot in Budapest before?
AO: No, I had only been when I was 21 with my best friend Pippa. We stayed in this tiny little hostel, and we went on, like, boat parties. [both laugh]

MR: Did you do the thing where you ride around on the bike while drinking a keg of beer?
AO: No, I wish I did that. We did the organised hostel pub crawls. [both laugh] I specifically remember the [first] day there [to shoot], I kept looking out the window waiting for something that I recognised. And I was like, “I literally don’t recognise anything.” [laughs] Because I think we probably just slept all day.

MR: Have you stayed in a lot of hostels?
AO: The summer I finished school and then all the summers in college, I would always travel with my friends. We’d save up all year, and then we’d go to like, Magaluf. [laughs] Or we went island hopping in Greece, and you’d get these little ferries that were like ten Euro to different islands. Where else did we go? My friends were doing a summer in Vancouver, so I went out to see them for a while. But then me and Pippa would always do like, a weekend in Budapest, or a weekend in Paris. We’d be in college and have barely any money, but we’d be like, “We just need to get there, and then we’ll figure it out.”

MR: I remember I would backpack with friends as well, and I’d give myself a rough budget in my head, but it was only like, $20 a day. That was never a concern. I was never like, “Oh, that might get tough.” I was like, “I can have a great time on $20 a day.”
AO: Where did you go?

MR: I’ve done so much travelling, like you – places in Europe, Sri Lanka, we did a month backpacking in the Philippines. So many different adventures.
AO: Have you been to Vietnam?

MR: No, I haven’t done Vietnam, and I really, really want to.
AO: I actually think you’d love it. It’s really, really special. I remember going to this one area called Sa Pa and we got this sleeper bus where you lay down but it sort of feels like you’re in a coffin. [laughs] I remember arriving and this woman met us, her husband came on a motorbike, took our bags and went up the mountain, while we did the six hour trek through the mountain to her homestay. It was incredible. We were probably like, twenty, and someone on Facebook just sent us it and was like, “Oh, you should do this.” Then I was staying in a mountain in Sa Pa. [laughs]

MR: It’d be so different backpacking now with the internet being what it is. I remember having a Lonely Planet Guide and literally finding the next place we’re going to stay by flicking through pages. It was so analogue. That makes me sound like I’m 1,000 years old. [laughs]
AO: It’s changed so quickly, how dependent we are on all of that.

MR: And then also, people probably see a picture on Instagram and they’re like, I want to go there because of this picture.
AO: I know, it takes the magic out of it. And then everyone goes.

MR: It’s not like this hidden gem that you have to discover anymore. What’s left on your bucket list?
AO: Well, I’m going to Australia.

MR: I know! I can’t believe your friends lived in the two suburbs that I also lived in.
AO: So crazy.

MR: I wonder if any of my local spots are still there.
AO: I’m so excited. If I had been able to stay there longer, I would have loved to have gone on to New Zealand. I’ll do it someday, I’m so curious.

MR: New Zealand is so incredible. I’ve been lucky to do a job there, so again, I got to live there. Oh my gosh, it’s so amazing – and it is Middle Earth, you can totally feel like you’re in Lord of the Rings – town. But also you should try to get to Tasmania because it’s very otherworldly. It doesn’t look like anywhere else in Australia – or anywhere else at all. It’s one of the more untouched places you can visit. Are there any bucket list things for your career that you have in mind?
AO: I don’t know how you feel, but I find it hard to imagine necessarily what I want. I find that jobs or scripts are so instinctual. I’m starting to become a big believer in… Someone said this to me a while ago and I really feel it now, I think some parts choose you. A lot of it is where you’re at in your life at that time, and why you can tell that story right now. I adore Joachim Trier, he’s sort of top of my bucket list. I just think he’s so amazing and makes the most human films ever. I remember seeing The Worst Person in the World, and I was like, “Oh, that’s a perfect film.” But if I can just keep working both on screen and in the theatre, I’ll be delighted, because it’s the best job.

MR: It really is. Are there any bucket list actors you want to work with?
AO: So many people. She’s also my friend, but I love Jessie Buckley, and I would love to work with her. She’s magical and I would love to be in her orb when she’s working.

MR: Is she Irish as well? Why are the best actors all Irish? I’m just obsessed with anyone who’s Irish. [both laugh]
AO: But all the Irish are obsessed with you – it’s completely neutral. The really funny thing about Jess is that I actually only met her like a year ago, and we’ve become friends now. But when she was younger, she did this competition on TV called Finding Nancy. It was for an Andrew Lloyd Webber West End production, and it was almost like The X Factor, but it was to get the lead role in the musical Oliver!. And I used to vote for her. [both laugh] I’ve sort of followed her career since I was really young.

MR: Did you tell her that the first time you met her?
AO: I don’t think I’ve told her.

MR: Oh my god! You have to tell her, that’s so amazing. [laughs]
AO: I think every Irish actor is connected in some way. We try to say it’s not true, but Ireland really is that small.

MR: I feel that way about Australia. Honestly, every time someone’s like, “Do you know so and so?” And I’m like, “Look, it’s a big country.” And then I’m like, “Give me their last name – yeah, I do know them.” [laughs] So it was a TV show to find the [person to play Nancy]?
AO: Yes. They’d sing a different song every week, and she came second, but everyone was like, “Oh my god, she’s a star.” Then she got the lead in… Oh my god, I know all of this. [both laugh] She got the lead in A Little Night Music on the West End, and then she went to RADA.

MR: [laughs] She’s your Cathy.
AO: You’ll always be my Cathy.

MR: [laughs] OK, wait, this is giving me an insight into you as a tween or teen that I’ve yet to discover. Tell us the embarrassing version of yourself at that time, or the honest version of yourself at that time.
AO: I do feel like I was really cringe. Do you remember we were talking about Emerald saying that her sexual awakening book was Wuthering Heights? I don’t know what my sexual awakening was [laughs], but have you ever seen the movie Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging?

“AO: It was piles of bums. Bums upon bums upon bums.

MR: A lot of group sex in impossible positions.”

MR: No. I know it, but I’ve never seen it.
AO: God, I think I’ve watched it over twenty times, easily. I can quote the whole movie. [laughs] It’s this girl who does everything wrong, and I remember seeing it when I was like fourteen or something, and that was the first time that I was like, “Oh my god, that’s me!” You know that feeling where you’re like, “I’m so seen by a character like this.” [laughs] It was the first time I’d seen someone my age in a movie like that who was really cringe, but it was kind of OK – it was really endearing and sweet. But my big obsession when I was a teenager was actually Ed Sheeran. [both laugh] I was obsessed with him. I went to about six or seven of his concerts, and I would literally fight my way to the front, like elbowing people. [laughs]

“With Isabella, there’s so much in her, but she has to lock so much of it away – she’s like, reverberating.”

MR: Have you ever met him?
AO: I passed him at an event, really briefly. He smiled and said hello, and I went, “Hello.” Then I had this really funny internal thing where I was like, “Oh my god, why are you so calm? Little me would have killed for this!”

MR: I hope you tell him that one day, like you need to tell Jessie Buckley that you voted for her. [both laugh]
AO Who were your people growing up that you were obsessed with?

MR: I mean, I was so obsessed with Harry Potter, to the point where I pretended I needed glasses. I feel like I’m cringe now – it’s not exactly something I grew out of, I’ve just learned to hide it better in the public eye. [laughs]
AO: That was one of the main things I related to with Isabella. I feel like part of me is actually really like that, but I just hide it really well. [laughs]

MR: Can we talk about Isabella? Obviously, your character in Wuthering Heights, and she is my favourite thing ever. You’re so funny in the movie. Your physicality for Isabella is so distinctive and perfect and hilarious. People are going to lose their minds when they see you. I’m so excited for this moment. I remember seeing you find that character and I saw how rigorous you are in your preparation. Your notebook that you would check in between takes with tons and tons of writing in it. I’m curious – what was your process for Isabella, and then what’s your process in general?
AO: Isabella felt very clear to me. Emerald’s writing is so amazing, that character just jumps out at you when you read her. In our version, she’s a ward, and she’s actually lived in India until she was around eight, and then was sort of orphaned, taken in by the Lintons, and moved to England. Mary from The Secret Garden was actually a really big reference for the character, because she had that same beginning. But for Isabella, she’s obviously been so sort of, infantilised by Edgar and kept in this child state. I was just really curious about characters that have a kind of peculiarity to them. I remember Polly [Bennett, movement director] said something to me which was really interesting. We talked a lot about that era and how much is repressed, how much is not allowed, and how you’re almost trained and bred into being a good little girl. Then when anything repressed is let out, it’s really messy and unorganised. With Isabella, there’s so much in her, but she has to lock so much of it away – she’s like, reverberating. Desperately wanting to kiss someone – or strangle someone.

MR: She’s practically vibrating. I’m so bummed the scene didn’t make the cut where Isabella’s saying her prayers before bed, but then pulls out this 18th-century porn. [both laugh] And that book, which, by the way, is a real book, is crazy.
AO: It’s actually horrific.

MR: The images in it. When people are like, “I’m so worried about the youth of today, because what they’re seeing online is giving them an extreme idea of sex,” honestly, looking at this book, I was like, what on earth did people back then think sex was? The illustrations in this 18th-century porn book – essentially a porno – honestly, it was like Cirque du Soleil. [laughs]
AO: It was completely awful. But that’s the repressed thing: if it’s all so shameful, then when you let it out, it’s this fucking weird thing. That’s sort of Isabella. I loved playing her so much.

MR: Do you think she’s the funniest character you’ve played?
AO: Yes. Emerald is also so great; she really lets you push things or let go. It’s such a freeing thing when the person you’re working with is really encouraging you to find that. I think there are loads of different ways of interpreting that character, and the way Emerald interpreted her was so exciting to me. What’s interesting about Isabella and Cathy is that Isabella is the reverse of Cathy. It’s like there’s an uncorseting of Isabella that happens. But in that uncorseting, she’s actually free. Whereas in reverse, you are coming from something wild and passionate and crazy, and then it all sort of gets cleaned up. But that’s actually not the answer. It’s an interesting study of that time for women: the options available, or the life available to you, was so limited. I don’t know if you found this, but when I was in the Wuthering Heights house, I was like, “I feel so free.” As beautiful as Thrushcross Grange is, it’s quite contained.

MR: I had the opposite. It’s actually when we were outside on location that I felt the most free. Wuthering Heights for Cathy, I think, is oppressing and dirty. Then she gets to Thrushcross Grange, and it’s so beautiful and clean. But then, like you said, there’s something stagnant about it. It’s kind of frozen, and that’s unnerving as well – but in a new version of oppression that takes her a while to realise is being inflicted. I just loved when we were on location – the landscape is so incredible, wild, harsh, and magical. And then on top of that, our personal experiences: we all got to hang out at the pub every day. [laughs] The best thing was that you guys were only actually needed for a couple of days out there…
AO: Two scenes, but we were there for the week.

MR: More than a week. You came and stayed out there just to hang. [both laugh] It was so fun. Every day I’d be messaging you guys, because everyone would be at the pub, and I’d be like, “Oh, I’ve still got another scene to go.” Then on our group thread, you guys are like, “Look at this waterfall we found,” or, “Look at this walk we went on, and we found a new pub we should try.” Jacob and I would just be like, “Shit. We gotta wrap this scene up so we can get to everything!” [both laugh]
AO: That was so much fun. I was thinking the other day about when we shot all of those montage pieces, and how much fun that was, and so crazy. At the end of big days where we’d done big dinner scenes or where loads of people were in, they’d be like, “OK, we’re going to do the picnic!” or “OK, we’re going to do Christmas!” It was just like, it’s Christmas now.

MR: And we’d always have fifteen minutes or something – it was mayhem. But the thing about Emerald is she uses every single bit of footage that she films; it all ends up being in the movie. There are even shots from the camera test that ended up in the movie. Cathy wandering in the courtyard – that was just a camera test shot. She uses every single scrap of film. Having said that, some scenes can’t make it, like Isabella praying and then pulling out the porno. Also that amazing scene where we do the walk around the library. Isabella’s so funny in that scene too, asking Heathcliff if he’s a man of science and pretending that she doesn’t care about that stuff as well. I loved that so much.
AO: Emerald’s ability to create on the spot is amazing.

MR: She’s both an insane preparer and an amazing improviser, actually – a lot like you, because you seem to be an insane preparer, and then also you can completely improvise. It’s so fun to be able to play at both ends of the spectrum.
AO: I sometimes feel like I can only do improvisational stuff if I’ve prepared in an insane way. Maybe it’s a confidence thing, and I feel like I have to have done my homework before I can let go like that.

MR: I feel like we are similar in that way – we approach things similarly. I have to do so much prep and so much work so that I can walk on set and throw it all away.
AO: Because you work so fucking hard. I’ll never forget seeing I, Tonya and finding out that was you. I was like, “What the actual hell?!” And when we were making Wuthering Heights, seeing you stepping in, giving the most incredible performance, then stepping out and being like a producer, getting on a Zoom call, then coming back in, doing another take – I was like, “How in the living hell are you doing this?” It’s mind-blowing to me. How have you found having those different hats on set?

MR: Honestly, I feel like I thrive on the multitasking nature of it. I don’t have a problem compartmentalising. I can sit in the edit on a film that I’m in and have no issue separating myself from the character on screen. And then [it’s also] loving the thrill of doing so many exciting things all at the same time. I feel like you have that too, because when you’re acting, you’re very aware of everything happening around you. You can feel if you’re moving out of your light or if someone’s blocking your light. I see you adjust, I see that you are conscious of where the crew members are, and you’re adapting your performance so that it works within the context of what everyone else is doing. So much of brilliant acting is lost because if you can’t be conscious of all the things happening around you, it’s not going to work in the edit, it’s not going to work on screen. Whereas you’re one of those actors who makes it work so that it’s going to end up being in the movie. And in order to do that, you have to be conscious. And in order to be conscious of everything else, you do have to be able to compartmentalise so many things. You have to be like, “I’m taking note of that – the camera, the lens, the light, what this actor is doing, how much time we have.”
AO: I’m actually not just saying this, I swear to god, I learned so much from you. I’ll never forget the day where, you know, that long scene you had…

MR: The hair-pull scene?
AO: Yes. You have a million things going on in that scene. There were so many different elements. And I remember you were sat on the couch, and people were coming over going, “OK, can you make sure you sit like this? Can you not put your hair that way? Also the camera’s going to be coming in here, so you need to do that.” And you were like, “Yeah, no problem.” Then I was watching the scene, and I was like, “You did all of it.” I’m really not just saying this, but I actually feel like that was something I was so conscious of when I was making the movie – watching how you did that. I was really trying to learn from it.

MR: That’s very sweet of you to say. Those do have to go hand in hand. I’ve sat in the edit so many times where a person did something amazing, but none of it is usable. It’s such a waste. If they can’t hit their marks or the focus is soft, we can’t use that take. So there’s no point in them even doing that amazing take. I don’t know if people realise that all the time. I want to ask, how did you find the experience working with Emerald in Wuthering Heights versus working with Emerald in Saltburn? Did you find the way your actor-director relationship changed?
AO: I don’t even think I’ve said this to Emerald – I don’t even know if she realises how much confidence she gave me by giving me that part [in Saltburn]. Because when I auditioned, I hadn’t really done very much, and there was nothing about me that I necessarily felt screamed Venetia. But it’s such a good part, I was just so excited to be auditioning for it. It was so amazing that she was like, “Yeah, we’re just going to dye her hair, and we’re going to cover her in tan, and she can do it. I believe in her.” It gave me so much self belief. Directors can have such an impact on actors in the sense of seeing things in people that exist but haven’t found their way out yet. They can be the person who unlocks something. I felt like she saw that in me before I did, so I feel very grateful that I met her and that she gave me that opportunity – it really opened me up as an actor.

“I feel like [Emerald Fennell] has this torch, and we’re all just following her and helping her bring it to life.”

MR: I still remember watching your audition tape for Saltburn. I remember Emerald texting and saying, “Watch Alison Oliver’s tape.” You stood out so distinctly. She definitely knew it the second she saw you. We all watched your tape and were like, “Holy shit, she’s so good.” I remember everyone’s tape. Archie [Madekwe]’s tape was unbelievable. He’s a really strong auditioner.
AO: Because of the nature of Saltburn, there was this real feeling of boldness on set. I’ve said this before, but sometimes when she was directing, it felt like she was daring you to do something. It felt so bold, so exciting. And getting to continue that relationship was… I’ve never worked with the same director twice before, and it’s such a lovely thing. Having that shorthand already, I could understand much quicker what she needed from me in a moment, or how she saw things, how she was interpreting things. I feel like she has this torch, and we’re all just following her and helping her bring it to life. Within that, we’re having these really amazing creative experiences – there’s just no one like her.

MR: I love the torch analogy, because I felt that for sure. There was this shining light, and we all knew we were racing towards it, but could never actually grasp it. But if I had got it and held on to it, I would have put it out. The fact that it was always just at my fingertips kept me going. The number of times I asked her, “Have I got Cathy?” And she was like, “Yeah, you’re doing Cathy.” I’m like, “I feel like I can’t catch her. I can’t grasp this. I can’t hold on to it in a way that makes me feel like I’ve got it and I can wrestle it into this box I need it to sit in for me to feel like I can fuck something up.” And that’s perfect – the fact that she can sustain that feeling for the whole shoot, but it still be a clear, distinct thing to aim for. It’s an amazing magic trick.
AO: It’s almost like they’re these epic characters that you’ll never get, but the fact that you’ll never get them is what keeps you reaching.

Interview originally published in Heroine 24. 

hair LAURAINE BAILEY using DYSON HAIR PRO & INNERSENSE ORGANIC BEAUTY; make-up JOEY CHOY at THE WALL GROUP; photography assistants SAM SIMS and ELWOOD RAINEY; fashion assistant ABI KOHLER; post production EURSA MAJOR