French actress Emma Mackey is renowned writer Emily Brontë in a stirring new trailer for Emily. Mackey rose to prominence with the Netflix series Sex Education. The series debuted in 2019, and season 4 is set to start filming this fall. Her performance as Maeve in the Netflix hit has been lauded by critics and season 1 saw Mackey quickly become a fan favorite on the show. Since Sex Education, Mackey has starred in Death on the Nile and was announced as a cast member for Greta Gerwig's Barbie.
Now, in a new Warner Bros. UK trailer, Mackey takes on the role of Emily Brontë in Frances O'Connor's directorial debut, simply titled Emily. The film follows Brontë as she pens the literary classic Wuthering Heights. Mackey's iteration of the troubled Brontë sister will reportedly feature as a 'rebel' and 'misfit' struggling to find her place in a traditional world while juggling relationships with sisters Charlotte and Anne, unstable brother Branwell, and new forbidden love William Weightman. Taking a page out of Brontë's book, the trailer sports a gothic tone. See the full trailer below:
The biographical film is the latest in a period piece Renaissance centered on female protagonists struggling to fit into narrow-minded societies. While some stay fully faithful to the source material, such as Autumn de Wilde's Emma starring Anya Taylor Joy, others, such as Netflix's Dakota Johnson-led Persuasion, take liberties in order to put a fresh spin on familiar stories. Sometimes, this approach pays off, as with Apple TV+'s acclaimed historical fantasy series Dickinson, starring Hailee Steinfeld as poet Emily Dickinson. O'Connor's Emily promises a more grounded and gothic take on a specific time in Emily Brontë's tragically short life. Emily is set for an October 14 release, so audiences will soon be able to see Mackey transformed as the tortured artist.
Source: Warner Bros. UK