MovieChat Forums > Wuthering Heights (2009) Discussion > All the woman who are saying Tom is Heat...

All the woman who are saying Tom is Heathcliff take a cold shower


From what I've been reading here seems like most of the answers of the best Heathcliff are given by woman who are Tom Hardy's fans and all of you are dismissing Ralph Fiennes because he is not the heartthrob of your generation.


But com on girls how can you pick Tom hardy who is a descent actor over Ralph Fiennes who is a two times Oscar nominee.
Steven Spielberg picked him to play Amon because he saw his evil sex appeal in Wuthering Heights.


I think your pick is genuine but seems like all of you are thinking with your hormones and not with your heads.

So ladies please take a cold shower and check Both(1992 and 2009) versions again and I bet your pick for the best Heathcliff will change.

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While I'm inclined to agree with you I honestly tend to forget that Ralph Fiennes ever played Heathcliff. I'm not one to like actors based on looks nor am I particularly a Hardy fan. But the problem with Fiennes is that I tend to think of him as a gentlemen more often then not. I expect to see him in a pristine suit as the head of the house. Not a wild man like Heathcliff. Although Fiennes is very versatile, that's just the image of him that I've developed. So it's difficult for me to find him believable in other roles. Hardy has a crazy wildness about him that lends itself well to this role.

That all being said, I think the Fiennes version was better overall.

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Interesting that you think of Ralph Fiennes more as a gentleman when most of the times he plays evil characters and those characters have cost him to loose a huge female fan base.
If he have played more characters like Almasy and chris Marshall he would have been known as the British George Clooney

Maybe he( Ralph ) didn't have exactly the wild look but acting wise he was perfect in this character he was intimidating and scary when he had to but he also did a great job when he played the man who was in love with Catherine.
Heathcliff it's like playing two characters in the same body and Fiennes did so very well.

Now I have to admit that Hardy looked more like the character and he is a descent actor but performance wise Ralph did a much better job or maybe it's just the script that watered down Heathcliff in this version.

Another plus I have to give to this version is that they showed more of the romantic side.




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Well I'm not some woman that needs a cold shower, as you put it; Fiennes is a good actor, but he wasn't so believable as Heathcliff; he in no way looks the part, and his face is just too familiar; he simply looks like Ralph Fiennes playing Heathcliff. Nobody is saying that Tom Hardy is a "better actor" than Fiennes; he just happened to be more suitable for this particular role. and if Hardy has "fans," he deserves them. The guy has amazing screen presence, and he has done some really memorable work lately.

"IMdB; where 14 year olds can act like jaded 40 year old critics...'

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Wooww That's a fantastic analysis I most admit.
And I'm not saying it in a sarcastic way, even tough Ralph is still my favorite Heathcliff I have to say that yes Hardy had a better script and time to develop the character.

Similar to what happened with Anne of the Thousand days and the Tudors.
Both actresses portrayed Anne Boleyn to perfection but it was Natalie Dormer who had the advantage of time do develop her character more.

The difference between the tv miniseries of WH and the Tudors is that the Tudors had the same budget of the movie the other Boleyn girl and Anne of the thousand days together meanwhile.

It was obvious that Ralph's version of Wuthering heights had a way bigger budget than Hardy's version and watching things in a colder way I have to accept that Tom Hardy did a great job with this part but still Ralph's personality and passion makes his Heathcliff win for me.






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I liked Hardy as Heathcliff, but he struck me as a bit modern for the role, sort of a "dude" playing Healthcliff. I thought Fiennes' acting was more complex, although I did like Hardy as he played the older Heathcliff and brought out more of the character's fierceness and desperation.

I think Matthew Rhys would give a good performance as Heathcliff. He's not the perfect physical type, but then no actor who's played Heathcliff has been, imo. With costume and wigs he'd look more the part than usual, since he's already a bit exotic-looking. One of the important aspects of Heathcliff as a character, in my opinion, is the sense one should get that he's foreign and doesn't quite fit into his surroundings. As Byron in Beau Brummell: This Charming Man he projected an intensity and strangeness, which would also work well for Heathcliff. Heathcliff's a Byronic literary hero, after all. Rhys also depicted obsession and desperation well in The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

I agree with another poster that the Dracula-era Gary Oldman would have been interesting as Heathcliff. There's a wildness, a sense of no boundaries, to Oldman's acting that would have worked well in the role.

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Everyone is forgetting the best and the first Heathcliff , Laurence Olivia ! he was and is the best. :)

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I'm a woman and he honestly doesn't do much for me. (On top of that I keep hearing Bane whenever he speaks...) I thought he was decent in the role, at least for what it seems they were trying to accomplish with this version of Heathcliff. I don't think he was mind-blowing or anything like that.


Look, it was in a barn. People do a lot of stupid things in barns.

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