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The Brett Cooper Show

BookTok's Smut Obsession Just Killed Another Classic

01 Feb 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What criticisms surround the new Wuthering Heights adaptation?

0.031 - 15.964 Brett Cooper

So Hollywood might just have ruined yet another piece of famous literature. And between alleged race swapping and affair rage baiting and out-of-touch promos and a porn-brained director, those are my words, it seems like nobody online is happy with the new Wuthering Heights, possibly not even the star Jacob Elordi.

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19.96 - 35.075 Brett Cooper

So the context here is that Margot Robbie and her production company are about to release their adaptation of Emily Bronte's novel, Wuthering Heights. And the internet, needless to say, has a lot of concerns. Now, I remember back when this was first announced, when they talked about the casting, when they talked about who was going to be doing the music.

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35.295 - 44.431 Brett Cooper

FYI, that is Charlie XCX, which just seems crazy. Criminal, that is criminal that that is who's doing the music. Anyway, even back before the cameras started rolling, people were not thrilled about this adaptation.

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44.491 - 60.936 Brett Cooper

Because first and foremost, like everything I just said, without even seeing the film, they just do not think that this version, this take on the story is respectful, is accurate, is intelligent in the slightest. They just believe it is an absolute outcry. And one commenter on X put it so eloquently and said, this is wine mom porn slop.

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60.916 - 74.236 Brett Cooper

that is essentially a darker Bridgerton, maybe even a Fifty Shades of Grey, but like the Victorian Gothic edition. That is what we are dealing with here. And I have to be real here because I would love to sit here and be like, I just love Wuthering Heights so much. I need to defend this novel.

Chapter 2: How does the marketing strategy reflect Hollywood's obsession with sex?

74.316 - 91.621 Brett Cooper

I care so deeply about this. But honestly, up until now, I really have not paid this film much attention because out of all the big Gothic Victorian novels, Wuthering Heights was never my favorite. It actually might be the least favorite that I was ever assigned in school that I ever just decided to read on my own. Like I have read Jane Eyre, for example. about 10 times.

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91.842 - 106.421 Brett Cooper

I chose to write essays on it in college. I picked classes based on whether I could read it again. Like I, it's just incredible. And Jane Eyre was written by Emily Bronte's sister, Charlotte, but reading Wuthering Heights, it was a completely different experience for me. Like that was a slog. It was painful to finish. I just did not love it.

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106.481 - 116.775 Brett Cooper

So going back a year and a half when the internet first started talking about this, like the new adaptation did nothing for me, was not impacted. Obviously a great piece of literature being decimated by Hollywood. Nobody likes that, but I just really didn't care until

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Chapter 3: What are the implications of casting older actors in Wuthering Heights?

116.755 - 134.081 Brett Cooper

Hill until this week, until I started to notice how they were going about this press tour for the Wine Mom Portslop movie, how odd and obsessive the behaviors of the actors were, and how it's even stranger because of who Margot Robbie's husband is. Now, before we get into all of this, two housekeeping things. Number one, I still have my show on March 1st at Zany's here in Nashville.

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134.121 - 143.455 Brett Cooper

The one that was going to be tomorrow was unfortunately canceled because I am still iced in. So if you got tickets for that, we will be resetting that date. Do not worry, but I will be at Zany's on March 1st. And

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143.435 - 165.122 Brett Cooper

Also, if you want ad-free episodes and behind-the-scenes content, story times, vlogs, farm information, all of that sort of thing, all of that can be found at my subscription site over at cooperconfidential.com. TLDR, what you need to know before we really dive in here is that the PR around Wuthering Heights is giving Shein, it's giving Timu, Sidney Sweeney, Glenn Powell promoting anyone but you.

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165.102 - 184.028 Brett Cooper

I will say, I have had some new folks come and join the fun, join the family. You might not have been around back in December of 2023 when we dove deep on that story. Picture this, it is 2023, December of 2023, and all anyone could talk about in the pop culture social media world was whether Glenn Powell and Sidney Sweeney were hooking up while filming their rom-com, Anyone But You.

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184.348 - 204.718 Brett Cooper

Or, or whether they were just method acting on this rom-com of theirs. You can see a headline here, Sidney Sweeney gushes over Anyone But You co-star Glenn Powell after affair rumors. I mean, like they were hooking up all over each other. Clinging, laughing, giggling, her bosom just popping out of shirts. They were going on family trips together and posing. They were gushing over one another.

204.878 - 205.519 Brett Cooper

Just watch.

205.539 - 216.519 Unknown

Sydney is very easy to pretend fall in love with. The ideas of love are swirling through your head while these big romantic moments are happening. Sometimes harder to differentiate between real life and fake life.

216.599 - 232.217 Brett Cooper

Sometimes harder to differentiate between the story and real life. Glenn, Glenn, oh my God. I'm sorry, you said that it is hard to differentiate between real life and the story. Like, sir, you had a girlfriend. She had a fiance. And had, by the way, is the key word there. They both were in relationships.

Chapter 4: How does the press tour contribute to the film's perception?

232.237 - 244.384 Brett Cooper

This whole thing, it went so far. They were like so in the story together. You know, it was so crazy that even Hoda on the Today Show even asked them if they were actually a thing, if they were in relationships, even though it was public knowledge that he had a girlfriend and she was literally engaged.

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244.432 - 249.301 Unknown

I have to ask, because there's chemistry sitting here, is this like a little romance?

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249.682 - 257.818 Margot Robbie

It's not? No. Well, then you guys really do love each other. We do love each other, and honestly, this is one of the most spectacular humans I've ever met. She's really incredible.

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257.838 - 263.689 Unknown

Oh, well, y'all are so cute together. Well, I just want to say I'm glad that you guys are in this movie together. Y'all are adorable.

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263.669 - 280.041 Brett Cooper

Now, needless to say, both of those relationships ended very soon after this movie finished filming. Glenn and Sydney never publicly dated, so it does seem like maybe this was all some kind of publicity stunt or they dated behind the scenes, whatever. Maybe it was, you know, some kind of affair turned cash cow. I have no idea. But the point being, this worked.

280.021 - 295.589 Brett Cooper

It got everyone to go stream the movie, including myself. It was terrible. And yet we all were obsessed about it. We were all talking about it. And so the internet is now theorizing that Margot Robbie and her co-star Jacob Elordi for Wuthering Heights are doing the exact same thing. They saw that success. They saw it was a fun, silly little, you know, rom-com situation.

295.669 - 309.07 Brett Cooper

This Wuthering Heights, again, it's like wine mom porn slop. It's releasing on Valentine's Day. They said, we're going to do the exact same thing. But unlike Sidney Sweeney and Glenn Powell, nobody is gushing. Nobody is giggling and kicking their feet on TikTok. We are all actually very concerned.

Chapter 5: What role does social media play in shaping public opinion about the film?

309.09 - 317.401 Brett Cooper

They're concerned because this was obviously so staged and it's even stranger, again, if you think about who Margot Robbie's husband is and what his role was in this entire situation.

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317.421 - 332.539 Brett Cooper

Now, before we get into that and before we get into all of these clips, something that you should know is that on top of people just being weirded out by the adaptation, people have already been concerned about the casting of this film because in the novel, if you haven't read it, the bulk of the story takes place when the two lead characters, Catherine and Heathcliff, are very young.

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332.519 - 350.578 Brett Cooper

15 to 19 years old, not really trying to spoil anything, but that is about how old one of them gets. Like, it is 15 to 19 years old. However, that is very obviously not represented in the modern story that they are telling, and it is not represented in the casting, because Margot Robbie is pushing 40. She is 35 years old, and Jacob Elordi is 28 years old.

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350.558 - 366.313 Brett Cooper

I do think that they did this for two reasons. Now, number one, this is Margot's film. She is producing it. She probably wanted to star in this. She's queen of taking stories that she wants to tell, putting herself in them. More power to her. That's great if you have the opportunity to do that. Amazing. But number two, because they have turned this story into a porno.

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366.333 - 382.369 Brett Cooper

They took a love story, this deep, gut-wrenching love story about these young people, and they turned it into a porno. Somebody posted this on X and said, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi playing 16 year old Catherine and Heathcliff in this scene. Seven year old boy. Yeah, that is basically what they're doing. of course diehard fans are going to be upset about that.

382.43 - 400.172 Brett Cooper

But you know, we could also argue that maybe finally somebody in Hollywood had common sense and they were like, you know what? Maybe, maybe let's not cast 16 or 17 year olds for the Victorian era. Fifty Shades of Grey. Maybe that would not go over well. Anyway, I say all of that, that context is important because they are really desperately trying to make this film work.

400.212 - 420.099 Brett Cooper

They know the people online are not too happy about it. They know that it's like a stretch, this adaptation they're doing. Margot knows that she is 20 years older than the character is. And so they want us to look past all of that, look past the possible offensive adaptation, the strange casting, and become obsessed with the film, as obsessed with them and it as they are with each other.

Chapter 6: What are the underlying themes of Wuthering Heights that may be overlooked?

420.14 - 441.074 Brett Cooper

They wanna bring us into this world of Catherine and Heathcliff, hence taking the anyone but you PR tour route. And let me tell you, they are going hot and heavy. Just look at this photo shoot that they did for Vogue Australia, which really set this thing off. This is Jacob and Margot. And yes, in that dress, she is fully nude. Fully nude. Excuse me, you have a husband.

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441.114 - 458.063 Brett Cooper

You have a child and you are half naked with your co-star who was seven years younger than you. It's just a bit odd. And many of the comments were about that. They were about her husband. Somebody said her husband, meanwhile. Another one said her husband going through it. I mean, I just picked two of them. All of them basically say the same thing. Her husband is our strongest soldier.

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458.144 - 474.059 Brett Cooper

Here's the thing, guys. This is what I've been teasing. Her husband is the executive producer of the film. He is part of all of this, which is what makes it so strange and icky to me personally. Maybe not to other people, maybe not to people in Hollywood, but it's just odd. Even the Vogue article leaned into this.

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474.119 - 488.978 Brett Cooper

It's literally titled Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, pure obsession, cinema's wild romance. They're not talking about Wuthering Heights here. They're not talking about Wuthering Heights, the romance. They're framing it as Margot and Jacob having this pure obsession and wild romance. And again, listen, I get it. Don't jump down my throat.

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489.018 - 492.544 Brett Cooper

I understand that it's marketing and obviously it gets people talking. Here I am doing an episode about it.

Chapter 7: How does the director's vision affect the adaptation of classic literature?

492.604 - 508.528 Brett Cooper

But this is where the lines between work and personal get so blurred in Hollywood. And you wonder why so many of their marriages fall apart, why people are cheating and bouncing around from husband to husband. I'm sorry, it's things like this. And I think that this is, it's like one thing, if you have two single co-stars, maybe they start dating.

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508.588 - 524.271 Brett Cooper

Like Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson are a great example of that. They obviously played it out for the camera. I was absolutely baited. I was like, oh my God, they're such a cute couple. It was PR, it was obviously PR. They were not dating. That was very cute. But Margot Robbie is very publicly and happily married. hopefully, with a child.

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524.311 - 539.794 Brett Cooper

And Jacob has long been in a relationship with Olivia Jade, who was Lori Loughlin's daughter, you know, rowing scandal, USC, that whole thing. It's that Olivia Jade. However, they did recently kind of go through a breakup where they broke up end of 2025, but they were just spotted together. So we don't know whether they're actually together, but the point being he has been in a relationship.

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539.914 - 547.746 Brett Cooper

The point is they are not single and it is disrespectful. Just like it's disrespectful to be eating meat that was not raised in the USA. Thankfully, you don't have that problem with good ranchers.

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547.726 - 564.3 Brett Cooper

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564.28 - 580.011 Brett Cooper

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579.991 - 595.536 Brett Cooper

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Chapter 8: What is the overall impact of BookTok on literary adaptations in Hollywood?

595.516 - 612.259 Brett Cooper

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612.239 - 624.99 Brett Cooper

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625.05 - 638.87 Brett Cooper

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638.89 - 654.227 Brett Cooper

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654.207 - 666.968 Brett Cooper

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668.298 - 686.813 Unknown

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687.012 - 699.748 Brett Cooper

But back to the point about the personal and professional in Hollywood, in my opinion, personal opinion, professional opinion, whatever you want to argue, my opinion is you show up, you act, you do your job, the cameras turn off, that's it, boundary is set, you go home.

699.868 - 715.888 Brett Cooper

Leaning into your characters and the speculation about obsession and affairs just to sell tickets, possibly at the expense of your marriage and family, is crazy to me. Again, remember, Sydney Sweeney is no longer engaged to her fiance. Glen Powell's girlfriend is on record saying that this is the reason why she broke up with him.

715.868 - 731.852 Brett Cooper

And it's like one thing if the movie comes out, you do your thing and audiences, you know, latch on to something, they become obsessed with the character's relationships, their fan edits, whatever. Like that just means you're a good actor, you're doing your job. But for you to lean into that, for press and attention, that is weird. Objectively, that is weird behavior.

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