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.

Of course, all this talk of Wuthering Heights always brings this to mind (about a minute in, it will make sense if you've not seen it before): [link]

Now, I don't think that Heathcliff and Cathy being step-siblings is textually supported, but if it were true, it's an extra layer of both creepy AND crazy.

I think it's very plausible - I remember we talked about that when I was studying it. I wouldn't hazard a guess at whether Bronte was consciously implying that he's a by-blow, but it's very logical within the text, because why the hell else does their father bring him home? Although it's kind of a fairytale beginning, in all its horror and poetry. (I'm also intrigued by the suggestion that Heathcliff is biracial - he's consistently described as swarthy etc, and he's brought back from a bustling sea-port. Would make for an awesome bit of non-Sean-Bean casting.)

And, yes, that whole half-siblings thing - Wincest, people. Wincest. (Which is to say - the passionate intensity of the relationship between the brothers Winchester, which I do not read as UST myself, mirrors the passionate intensity of the Heathcliff/Cathy relationship. Including the whole digging-uu-the-grave, come-back-and-haunt-me craziness. And, really, I don't know that you have to read Heathcliff/Cathy as lovers, unconsumated or otherwise, or their relationship as sexual - it's just THAT FUCKING INTENSE. And the reason that so many slashers have embraced the Wincest thing is very closely akin to the reason that the majority of the readers of Wuthering Heights read it as a heterosexual romance. But I think that the kick of that relationship ISN'T rooted in UST - it's the intense, obsessive, passionate relationship that those two form in childhood, just them against the world. Sexual desire is almost incidental - it's just the easy shorthand for pigeonholing the relationship.

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.

Clips of the Fiennes/Binoche version. My laptop is pulling some weird shit where it won't let me watch any of them, so I can't point you at anything particularly typical, but - yeah, no. It's all rather excruciatingly Masterpiece Theatre, whereas it needs to be much more I-will-fuck-your-shit-up.