Emerald Fennell isn’t shying away from her WGA alliance even while promoting “Saltburn,” a WGA script she wrote.
Fennell, who helms the 2000s-set film starring Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi, spoke about her directing style during a post-screening Q&A at the Academy Museum with Kathryn Kusama (via Deadline). However, as Fennell is a member of the WGA and wrote the “Saltburn” script, she could not speak to its plot points directly per strike requirements.
“But, also WGA strong,” Fennell said. “I hope we kick their fucking asses.”
“Saltburn” follows Oxford student Oliver Quick (Keoghan) as he is pulled into the elite world of charismatic classic Felix Catton (Elordi), who invites him to his eccentric family’s sprawling estate Saltburn for a summer never to be forgotten.
“For that completely overwhelming carnal desire to take hold, there has to be an element of revulsion, there has to be an element of transgression,” Fennell told Vanity Fair earlier this year. “My favorite thing in general is sympathy for the devil. The sorts of people that we can’t stand, the sorts of people who are abhorrent — if we can love them, if we can fall in love with these people, if we can understand why this is so alluring, in spite of its palpable cruelty and unfairness and sort of strangeness, if we all want to be there too, I think that’s just such an interesting dynamic.”
As for Elordi’s character, the Oscar-winning “Promising Young Woman” writer-director said, “You can understand completely that no person would be capable of resisting this person. But at the same time, you can also understand that it is also sort of an illusion, an illusion other people are projecting onto him — and he’s actually not necessarily particularly special or interesting. He just happens to seem like he is.”
“Saltburn” premieres in theaters November 24 and has not received a SAG-AFTRA interim waiver; therefore, no cast members can promote the film so far.
