Q&A | ‘A film premiere is never a place you’d expect to be when you sign up to work in a museum’

Director Emerald Fennell’s star-studded new film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights has captured imaginations and headlines – while turning the world’s attention to Yorkshire’s wily, windy moors.

Museums Journal caught up with Mia Ferullo, the digital engagement officer at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, to hear about how the museum has made the most of the literary family’s latest cinematic outing.

How did the Brontë Parsonage Museum get involved with the release of the new Wuthering Heights film?

Our museum director, Rebecca Yorke, first met with representatives of Warner Bros and Emerald Fennell’s team over a year ago, in early February 2025. 

We then invited Emerald to be a speaker at our Brontë Women’s Writing Festival in September and have a private tour of the museum. As the event was the first time she’d spoken publicly about the film, it was very exciting for us to hear about her creative process.

Initially, our involvement was through our social media channels. Warner Bros had asked if we’d be happy to share digital assets like trailers and posters on our socials in the lead up to the film’s release. We knew we wanted to be a part of the conversation, especially as anticipation was building.

One of our most successful posts was in collaboration with the Wuthering Heights movie Instagram page: we put together a post to celebrate the anniversary of the novel’s publication, which hit 703k views and we gained hundreds of new followers as a result.

What has the museum been up to as part of its engagement with the film? 

The museum has been able to engage with audiences in new and unique ways because of the adaptation. We were invited down to London for the press junket and premiere, and I personally had the exciting opportunity to interview Emerald Fennell and Margot Robbie, the lead actor playing Catherine Earnshaw.

It was fantastic to get bespoke content for the museum that was specifically tailored to our audiences. I wanted to bring the conversation back to Emily Brontë’s novel and our collections, and it really came through how much they both appreciate Brontë’s writing and the work we do as a museum.

The UK premiere in Leicester Square was a surreal experience, and never a place you’d expect to be when you sign up to work in a museum!

The museum had the rare chance to highlight one of our collection items on the red carpet. We worked with stylist Andrew Mukamal and designer Dilara Findikoglu to assist them in the creation of a look inspired by a hair bracelet that belonged to Charlotte Brontë.

Victorian hairwork features at different points throughout the film and the museum has multiple pieces of hair jewellery in its collection.

We were happy to introduce Andrew to Wyedean Weaving, a local manufacturer, to create a replica bracelet, and also facilitated visits to the museum by Dilara’s team so they could colour-match the hair for the dress to the original bracelet.

This fashion moment meant that millions of people have now seen an item in our collection that may not otherwise have done so. From a conservation perspective, it also provided us with the opportunity to do further research into the original bracelet and have it assessed and cleaned by a jewellery conservator.

How has the release of the film impacted the current resonance of the Brontë family and their work?

The main impact, which I think should be celebrated most, is that so many people are picking up Wuthering Heights for the first time. Sales of the book have increased by almost 500% in comparison to the previous year, and the museum sold 388 copies over February half-term alone. That’s remarkable for a novel that’s almost 180 years old, but as Margot Robbie said in our interview, “what an incredible thing to achieve something so enduring”.

There has been so much conversation around the novel, which has led to increasing intrigue from people who want to know what all the fuss is about. Classic literature isn’t always the most accessible and it shouldn’t be taken for granted that a new wave of readers are diving into Wuthering Heights.

In addition, the Brontë Parsonage Museum is the place where Emily Brontë lived and wrote her famous novel, and we’ve already seen an increase in visitor numbers. If the film acts as a gateway to discovering the Brontës, then that’s fantastic and we look forward to welcoming those new audiences who want to learn more.

Has the experience influenced the museum's future plans around exhibitions, public engagement and beyond?

We’ve been holding “Wuthering Heights readiness meetings” since the late autumn! With the buzz already surrounding the film online, we planned related exhibitions, events and new merchandise.

Our programme officer curated a photographic installation that presents a century of Wuthering Heights screen adaptations from across the globe, highlighting the various ways this story has been told on screen. There are also many events in our programme focused on Wuthering Heights, along with talks and workshops about hairwork and lace-making to tie in with the themes of the film.

We’ve also considered how we can link to the film through our museum displays in ways that new audiences will recognise. Our curators have put together a case of hairwork and mourning jewellery, including the bracelet that inspired Margot Robbie’s UK premiere look.

For fans of the film, the museum has also kindly been loaned a prop by LuckyChap Entertainment. A Book of Friendship is a scrapbook shown in the film that Isabella makes for Catherine as a Christmas present. It’s currently on display in the Exhibition Room.

Leading on the museum’s social media activity in the build-up to the film’s release, I wanted our content to link back to Emily Brontë’s life and work.

I made a video for TikTok and Instagram highlighting various objects in the museum’s collection that belonged to Emily Brontë, set to Charli XCX’s Chains of Love. This is our most viewed piece of content ever, currently sitting at over 830k views – likely because it appeals to both existing and new audiences.

Do you have any top tips for other museums looking to make the most of relevant cultural moments?

I would say that film adaptations do have a place in writer’s house museums. Screen tourism is a huge driving force for domestic and international visits to the UK, and the role heritage plays in that shouldn’t be underestimated.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum will always continue to attract literary tourists as the Brontës’ novels are significant to English literature, but we cannot rely solely on literary tourism as a motive for visits. We also live in a time where social media influences many of our choices: what books we read, what films we watch and where we visit.

It’s not about whether an adaptation is faithful to the book, it’s about taking this moment to showcase who we are and what we do to people who are discovering us for the first time.

While our engagement with the film has prompted criticism from some quarters, we believe that our content aligns with our brand values of excellence and creativity, fulfilling our mission to “bring the Brontës to the world, and the world to Yorkshire”.