Sean Bean would be AWESOME as Heathcliff. For Cathy, I propose Emily Watson.

This I would watch.

It's the dynamic that's appealing, I think. It's that people mistake the two.

Abso-fucking-lutely.

...of course, I may be talking total bollocks.

Oh hell no. You make total sense.

it's sort of awesomely terrifying and gorgeous in its own way, like a tornado or a hurricane.

That scene from Angel during the Boxer Rebellion-- Angelus, Darla, Spike, carrying Dru all in slow motion through the flames and chaos. Beauty amidst utter destruction.

I can kind of see that, actually - Fiennes is intense and a bit mad, but he's also very Southern and very posh. Or at least that's his image as an actor. Ditto Olivier. And Heathcliff is, in class terms, the equivalent of some roughneck Texas cowboy.

I found Fiennes' physicality unconvincing, and I just couldn't get past all my previous associations with him in other roles. I was acutely conscious that he was pretending, which is really the last thing you want to be thinking when you're watching a performance (although at least it wasn't as hilariously bad as poor Juliette Binoche, whom I love, but who had absolutely no business at all playing that role, bless her).

Sean Bean. Wow. It's never crossed my mind before, but I'm kind of astounded it hasn't happened before now - I mean, fuck, Heathcliff is like THE strapping alpha male Yorkshire (anti)hero, and Bean is THE strapping alpha male Yorkshire actor. Why hasn't somebody made this already?

Surely there were umpteen urchins from which he could have chosen, so in picking Heathcliff, he must have had a reason, such as fathering an illegitimate child with some random woman.

I had a professor with a similar theory, if I recall correctly.

Unrelated but interesting: Terry Eagelton on Heathcliff as famine-period Irish immigrant. Fascinating stuff about ideas of the uncivilized other, and the need of the English to reassert their gentrified culture over untamed nature.

That scene from Angel during the Boxer Rebellion-- Angelus, Darla, Spike, carrying Dru all in slow motion through the flames and chaos. Beauty amidst utter destruction.

That scene was doubly brilliant because of how differently it felt on the two shows.

I found Fiennes' physicality unconvincing, and I just couldn't get past all my previous associations with him in other roles.

I should mention I haven't seen the Fiennes/Binoche version of Wuthering Heights, so my suggestion of Fiennes as appropriate for Heathcliff is based solely of my impression of him from other roles. Um. Except Maid in Manhattan.

Surely there were umpteen urchins from which he could have chosen, so in picking Heathcliff, he must have had a reason, such as fathering an illegitimate child with some random woman.

I had a professor with a similar theory, if I recall correctly.

I think this may be a common reading of the (sub)text, as I remember this discussion happening in a class when I was in college as well (circa 1986).

And Heathcliff is, in class terms, the equivalent of some roughneck Texas cowboy.

Colin Farrell? Although Sean Bean... hoo... def. brilliant.

I could see either Rufus Sewell or James Purefoy doing Heathcliff pretty well.

And maybe Eva Green as Cathy, too.