Now starring in “Wuthering Heights”, Shazad Latif has long been familiar with the intensity of audiences who watch closely, remember everything, and occasionally demand the world.
Moving fluidly across genre projects, prestige television, British comedy, and thrillers, Shazad has built a body of work that sits at the intersection of mainstream visibility and cult fandom—from Star Trek: Discovery devotees to Penny Dreadful loyalists, not to mention the immortal legacy of Clem Fandango from the Brit-beloved Toast of London.
1883 last spoke with Shazad in 2019, and his work has only continued to expand. Among them, there was his rom-com turn alongside Lily James in What’s Love Got to Do With It?, his philandering husband opposite Daisy Ridley in Magpie, a stint opposite Alfie Allen in Sky Original’s actioner Atomic, and the mythic Captain Nemo for Prime Video’s Nautilus.
Now, he finds himself once again inhabiting iconic literary terrain—this time as Edgar Linton in Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights”, a film that has inspired a wave of impassioned online think-pieces from journalists and literary fans alike even before the first trailer was released. In this adaptation of Emily Brontë’s English classic, Shazad’s Edgar is the wealthy, restrained counterweight within the story’s tragic love square—husband to Margot Robbie’s Catherine “Cathy,” romantic rival to Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff, and guardian figure to Alison Oliver’s Isabella.
When we chat over Zoom on a Friday afternoon, Shazad himself feels like a counterpoint to his character. Even though he’s just finished a “painful” barre Pilates class, Shazad is the kind of interviewee for whom rapid-fire questions are delightfully impossible and quickly dissolve into something more expansive and expressive. He remains recognisably the same thoughtful, generous Londoner we encountered seven years ago—now at the centre of one of the most anticipated studio releases of the year.
In conversation with Kacie Mei for 1883 Magazine’s latest digital cover, Shazad Latif jokes about playing “the ultimate cuck” in “Wuthering Heights”, reflects on being a part of an event film, and chats his complicated love for the industry.
It’s exciting to talk to you about a film that everyone’s talking about. It’s an “event film.” I know Emerald Fennell says she wants her “Wuthering Heights” to be “this generation’s Titanic.” What are your feelings about being a part of such a film where every journalist wants to interview you all, film clubs have scheduled discussion groups on the movie…
It’s great. It’s every actor’s dream to be part of an event piece—to be part of a Warner Bros movie that’s in the cinemas. You know this was my dream as a child. You go to the cinema, you see either Warner Bros or whatever else is up there, and you want to be that. And I remember watching a version of Jane Eyre when I studied stuff at school or whatever they’re going to… If the kids are going to be studying Wuthering Heights, and you get double English, and you get the video put on, and it’s our video… I remember how important and how impactful that was when I saw those movies at that age, and Titanic and Romeo and Juliet, and all those 1998 movies when I was 10 years old, 11 years, 12 years old. So to be part of…a child’s brain and any people being inspired by that is amazing.
And just for me personally as an actor, this was a movie that my nan had on VHS on the side. To be in that line of Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon, David Niven and then the next versions… It’s a joy. And there are some movies you make, and they don’t make a noise, and some people hardly see it. That’s the way this industry works. So right now, I’m going to try and really enjoy this ride, and then I’ll probably do something that you’ll never see [Laughs].
What was your memory of watching that VHS and of Edgar in that film? I think Emerald has said that her version of “Wuthering Heights” is trying to capture her memory of the story.
I remember David Niven playing Edgar Linton, and I’d seen his other works like Pink Panther. I’d seen that because I was just a movie nerd, so I was just watching very young. So what was my memory?… Any black and white movie, it just takes you back to that feeling of safety and a feeling of being young and the feeling of being hopeful and ‘What’s out there in the world?’ and ‘Maybe one day…’
But Emerald’s thing is that she’s made this her version of when she was 14—that feeling of love. And I really think that comes across in this version. It’s very visceral, the most emotional version I think. You go along for this ride and watch all of these people do mad things to each other, but because of love. So I was crying my eyes out [Laughs].
I think we’re all really prepared to be devastated…
Take some tissues!
Do you feel like prepping to play Edgar or watching the film altered your view on love, obsession, or revenge a little?
I mean, you could go through these things, but I don’t think we ever figure it out! In the process of making the movie, there was definitely a feeling on set because everyone was so invested. It was a small cast, it was just two sets, and Emerald and Margot had made it such a safe space. And from the top down, these two amazing women had just given us this place to play. And so the feeling of love from all of us was there. Everyone was in the zone. Everyone was just playing around on set.
You end up falling in love with each other. I was falling in love with everyone. It was just that feeling. And I think that’s what you want when you go through a kind of process like this—that it’s all about the work, and it was just wonderful.
But I don’t know how much I learned about love. That’s what I think, that’s a forever “make a mistake thing until you get it right”… [Laughs]
Yes, all you can do is get some experiential data. [Laughs]
Thing is: I’m playing the cuck. I get screwed over, so I don’t really want to take much advice from Edgar. Or do I? Maybe I do because he’s so forward-thinking. I mean, to learn that non-jealousy, to learn to turn a blind eye kind of thing to someone who you love, but you realise they love someone else.
Maybe that is something you can learn from, not in a polyamorous sense, [Laughs] but just more to really love someone is to let them go, I guess. In a way, that’s what Edgar does, which is quite amazing and heartbreaking.
That is heartbreaking. I know you just referred to him as a cuck… [Laughs]
I said it! I want a t-shirt of that: “The Ultimate Cuckman.” I think I should get a t-shirt.
No, I think after this, there will be t-Shirts of ‘Team Edgar,’ ‘Team Heathcliff’—of all four of the entire love square, depending on where people are in life. Did Emerald give you any specific directions about playing Edgar Linton?
There were constant tweaks. We had loads of discussions before. There was rehearsal, and Emerald’s phrase that she used, which has stuck in my head. She said, “Look, Edgar was such a milk toast sap in the other versions.” And her thing was, “I want to make him a credible threat. He’s not just this guy, just because he’s rich, just that she reallydoes love him. He’s got money, it’s going to change her life, but he’s clever, he’s kind. She does fall in love with him.”
And I think Emerald was saying… I think it’s in the film, “How could you not?” But it just doesn’t compare to that other love. So we’d be constantly tweaking. Emerald would say, “Do it like a sexy headmaster or do it like this”, or just give great direction lines where you can just change things as you’re filming it.
He’s a very interesting character, especially because he’s now a brown character in this film. And so that internal conflict there is a very interesting thing to play because he can’t be “dangerous Edgar.” He’s not connected to his chakras. He has to repress his rage. He has to be the most gentlemanly he can be because in that era, he has to be that, or otherwise he might get hand.
So I think it’s very interesting to play someone who has to be more English than anyone else and repress everything. But that one wild thing he sees in Cathy just destroys it because if he gives into it… he likes to box things up, everything’s nice, everything’s rich, everything’s in cages. But as soon as he lets anything wild into his house, she climbs over the wall, and everything just falls apart.
I saw that the casting process started off with Jacob, then Margot, during the filming of Saltburn. How did the script get to you?
It came through my agent… It was still in times when [actors] were sending tapes, so we hadn’t really gone back to auditioning in person yet.
But they were like, “No, Emerald wants to see you in person.” I think Emerald had seen a rom-com I’d done with Lily James called What’s Love Got to Do It?. And the casting director Kharmel Cochrane… She was luckily a bit late, stuck on a bus in traffic, so we got a great chance to chat before the audition instead of being in the room where it’s kind of awkward sometimes, and there are people waiting, rushing the audition because those environments were always just strange anyway…
What was that conversation like without the cameras and everything?
It was just a general discussion of, “Do you even know the book? Do you even know the project?” And I was like, “Look, this is a project I actually know very well.” Like I said, it was my Nan’s thing. “I’ve known this book for a long time.” Then, [we talked about] how she was going to explore this and what her vision was. And obviously, I was like, “Please, just let me be in it if I do a good audition.” But those processes are always very strange anyway.
I know you said you’re a big film person. Do you think “Wuthering Heights” would be a good date movie?
I think it is because with any of these heartbreaking, tragic wrongfuls, it’s nice to go and feel alive. So any buzz you get with your partner, you can explore…and talk about these things… Just everyone can relate to these feelings of obsession, desire, love, or at some point in their lives hopefully.
So I think it’s a great date movie. Maybe not if [the relationship is] fragile. Maybe go when you’re in a good way! [Laughs]
There’s been a trend with Margot’s other movie Barbie, and a few others, where couples have been breaking up after watching a film together, either over their differing reactions of the film or the storyline hitting close to home and making them think differently about their relationship. Why do you think this is?
Yeah! I think we just all need to speak. If you’re in a relationship, communication’s the key. I think if they go, they’re prepared, communicate, speak from the heart like everyone in the movie does. Well, not Edgar. But Cathy and Heathcliffe know how to talk from their souls. So we can take a little lesson from that, but yeah, maybe not too much. Don’t have to reveal everything straight away! [Laughs]
The last time we talked to you was seven years ago. To set the scene: Penny Dreadful season three was about to come out. You were in Star Trek: Discovery at the time. The Man Who Knew Infinity was about to be released. And, at the time, I think you were also still using a flip phone…
That had to change because I couldn’t get my Zipcars! I was Zipcar-ing a lot, and I was hotspotting off people with an iPod, and I was like, “This is too far… I have to give in now.” But yeah, so depressingly, I’ve got phones and social media and all that kind of stuff, but I try to limit it as much as possible.
Are you someone who only gives themself 30 minutes a day to be on Instagram?
I only recently got it back and It seems to be an integral part of the business now. But I don’t spend much time on that. I’ll check my emails, check the sports, check the news, and then just [go through them] as quickly as possible. Otherwise, it’ll suck you in. I don’t need another addiction.
Ooh, what are your current fixations or addictions?
I’m really enjoying the classes that I do because they’re all great, and I’m getting social… It’s like going to the pub, but then we do a little Pilates class. I’m like, ‘“People are getting annoyed with me now because I’m just sort of hanging around chatting to people” but that’s the vibe. So I’m enjoying the classes. There’s Pilates, there’s tread and shred, there’s calisthenics… That’s my new addiction. I think it’s a good way to go.
Coat Homme Plissé Issey Miyake Knit Studio Nicholson
The last time 1883 Magazine spoke with you, you said that London was home to you. Do you still feel the same way?
Yeah, I’ve got a little spot down by the coast now in the last few years because I like to be by the ocean. And I lived in Australia for two years, about three years ago. So I’ve got that addiction to the sea, being by nature and the forest. I split time between them, but I still love London. I’m a Londoner, born and bred, so I’m never going to not love it.
I’m quite nomadic; I’m always with a suitcase. I still like a sleepover at a mate’s house. They’ve all got kids now, so they’re like, “No, that’s not going to happen.” But I’m like, I don’t want to leave people’s houses if we’re just around there watching trains or something. I’ll try to stay as late as possible.
I feel that. And in your nomadic era, has there been a place that’s inspired you?
Well, this place, down by the coast. I think just being by the ocean…blocks out thoughts in a way that maybe when you play sports does, or it’s just good for you. I’ve been going back to Australia and New Zealand a lot because I’ve created a little family there. Family means just new friends. I just love going so far away that it feels like you’re going through a portal to another world.
Just getting away from everything and being by waterfalls, which are 15 minutes from where you’re staying, or it’s just being in that tropical climate. I do love the heat. I feel like I do better with Vitamin D, and everything just feels better.
Stepping away from the tropical and Vitamin D. For Penny Dreadful fans like myself, I think “Wuthering Heights” is our first time seeing you again in a Victorian, romantic, gothic setting.
It’d be great to not do the same thing straight after the last thing I had done, but I love going back to that era because I get to do the funny hairstyle and the weird moustache, and I look like my dad in the 70s and 80s [Laughs].
It’s always good to play around, that’s the fun bit: dressing up and changing in a sense and looking very different from Penny Dreadful because that was more moody, sexy, Jekyll and Hyde, whereas this is more Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind…
The [design] teams were so high-quality that they just created this worldview, and I just had this big mansion. I could walk around, sip tea and have scones. And so it’s a really fun part to play Edgar because he’s the rich guy, so he gets all these lovely gardens and houses to chill in. So it was nice.
What a life! [Laughs]
Yeah. But then you go back to your real life, and you go, “Oh God.” [Face palms]
Do you remember your first “rich guy” purchase as a working actor?
[I was 21] when I got my first professional job. So we didn’t have a lot of money until then. And then this job was… “Oh, this is a big amount!” And as an idiotic poor kid would do, I just spent everything in two years. But my first purchase was: I got a bike, and I went down to HMV in Tottenham Court Road, and I spent about 300 quid on two giant bags of DVDs, and I put them on either side of the bike like Home Alone. They literally fell off, and I had to pick it all up and find other bags. But that was honestly my first purchase. I reckon I bought about 50 brand new DVDs. And then for years, I’ve had a stacked wall of all my DVDs.
They’re now in the shed, but I want to get them back out and turn them into some kind of glass table artwork or something because I don’t want to get rid of them, I think it’s good to keep them.
Okay—this might be a big question. Who is Shazad Latif?
Yeah, that’s a tough question. I feel like I change day-to-day. I mean, there’s the version of you that looks back on your life, you’re talking to a therapist and you’re like, “Oh, all of this childhood trauma stuff… Who am I? Am I that person?” You are growing. Every day, I suppose we’re trying to get better and better.
One day you feel like, “Oh, I’m a fool and idiot consumerist stuck in a weird capitalist society.” Other days, you’re like, “I’m feeling very spiritual. I’m going to give back. I’m helping.” Especially in the last year, it feels like we’re constantly trying to figure it all out. It’s a mad world right now, and it’s getting scarier every day.
So it’s hard to try and selfishly look inwards and go, all right, who am I?, What am I doing? And then you’re in a business where actors are classically egotistical, and selfish [laughs]. But then they’re beautiful artists. I think the world is just a place of contradictions. You wake up, have your first coffee or tea, and you’re like, alright—what the hell is going to happen?
Who’s Shazad Latif? I don’t know. I guess people have their own perceptions of who they think I am. What I do know is that I love making connections with people. I love sitting down and talking to someone for hours in the pub or by the beach. Making human connections is the most interesting thing there is. I guess it’s up to the person in front of me.
As an expat in London, I feel like a lot of people who are from here are still friends with their friends from uni or growing up. Do you feel like that’s true of your friend group?
I’ve got a friend from day zero, one of my best friends, Kieran. I’ve got my friend Louie. I’ve got my friend Hassan from when I was four or 11. We go back from primary school and secondary school. Then you’ve got people from dramatic school, acquaintances and stuff like that, and people you’ve collected along the way, but I like to expand the circle and keep it…. [My friends are] one of the most important things in my life… I’m very grateful that I get to go around and watch reality TV with them and steal their food.
What do they think about your career? Are most of them in the industry or outside of it?
Most of them are outside of it, doing jobs that make me feel guilty about doing my job—working with kids and working with refugees My friend Hassan’s got a beautiful charity working with really troubled kids. I go, “Oh God, I’m just going to go around and blab about playing Edgar Linton, and they’re doing real stuff.” They’re good people.
Yes, you’re sauntering around a mansion all day, whilst… [Laughs] I think I saw that you also took Jacob Elordi to do some karaoke…
He took me! It was a screening of Frankenstein, and I joined him and his friends for an evening. So that was a beautiful thing.
Who do you think is the better singer?
Depends what song. I think we’ve got different types of voices. Maybe quite similar? But I’m not sure. No, he was great [Laughs].
I read that one of your previous co-stars, Bill Nighy, told you to keep a diary. Have there been any notable memories as of late where you’re like, ‘I need to commit this to memory. I need to write this—‘
I would say the whole filming experience of “Wuthering Heights”. It was such a joyous thing to re-instil my faith that jobs can be really beautiful, fun, artistic, special and deep with the people that you’re acting with. Yeah, I just don’t write it down enough… I literally got a diary from “Wuthering Heights”. It was one of the gifts [we got] with a bit of artwork.
Is there a specific day that comes to the top of your mind when you think back to filming?
There was a day we were up in the Yorkshire Dales, and we all just went for a lovely walk and Jacob [Elordi] had his Super 16 or Super 8 camera. We had pints and Guinness, and we were walking in the Yorkshire moors with Margot [Robbie], her husband, Alison [Oliver], and Hong [Chau]. We went cold swimming in the waterfall where they’d shot Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, which was like a five-minute walk, and there’s Peacocks in the bloody thing, and just got drunk. And I had one day of filming, and I went: “Oh, this is a great week of filming.” And that’s the kind of memories I’ll hold onto forever.
It’s nice to hear how working on this film helped re-instil your view on the industry. Do you think your view on the industry or your career has changed a lot since the last 1883 interview?
I think it’s been a tough, tough five years. We had a writers strike in 2018? 2019? And then it was COVID. Then it was another strike, and it was another strike. And then it was something else recent. Then, there’s AI. And so there are always new things in the industry as it changes and grows. I hope that AI just slips in and doesn’t destroy too many jobs—doesn’t change it so much that it completely eradicates any artistry in the industry.
So it’s been an interesting last seven years. It’s hard not to feel ground down sometimes. And when the job is good, it’s the greatest job in the world, and I’m grateful for every time I get to step on set and work with great people. But like anything, it can be tough sometimes, and it can be not a great experience or whatever. As a brown actor, coming up from then, yes, it feels like sometimes there’s progress, and then being in something like this, you go, ‘Oh, wow’.
But then sometimes it feels like it’s two steps back… I say this every time: it’s just got to be from the top down… There was a stat the other day. It’s like 90% of streaming is still made and created by white people. So if that’s 90%, it is not a great stat. So I feel like there’s just so much progress to be made. I feel like we are constantly pushing. We’ve got to keep knocking, keep positive, keep removing the obstacles and try to stay happy and positive every time we get a chance, because I feel like there’s enough space for all of us at the table.
Do you feel, because of that, it’s kind of hard to predict or plan your career?
100%. I feel like people think we have a lot more choice. I’m trying to. I try and visualise and try and want to work with great people and keep the calibre high. And I feel like in “Wuthering Heights”, that was that. It was like, ‘I want to work with these people. Yep, I’m at the right level. This is it. I’m here.’ Then who knows where the next job is?
So it’s very hard to plan because it doesn’t flow the same way, I would say, sometimes for people of colour. And that’s nothing against my white colleagues or anything like that, because I love them dearly, but it is two different worlds, I would say.
With that, how do you go about thinking about the next projects?
My dream would be to work with all the top directors. It just doesn’t really work. I’d love to work with Paul Thomas Anderson, but it isn’t going to happen. I mean, everyone does! You’ve got to get lucky. Someone’s got to see your work…I suppose I was trying to create my own work and trying to do those things to stay positive, to feel a sense of control over something. I’d also love to write and produce as well.
Yeah, I’ve chatted to some actors on the festival circuit recently who said something similar—that they’re actively trying to get more agency in their career. Idris Elba created his own short. Letitia Wright as well…
And these are big names. These are big names you’re saying! These are huge stars. So yeah, it’s two different worlds…
There’s something I’m working on with a friend at the moment, and we’re at a certain point, and I’m excited by it, and I’m hoping, but you never know these things, how long things take and people have to read through and learn and learn funding and all these things.
I’m very excited [about that], and it’s something I’m doing myself, but it just takes a bit of time, but I feel like I’m going to stick to it, and you’ll see it one day soon, hopefully.
Yes, we’ll definitely interview you again for that then. Hopefully it won’t take another seven years. [Laughs]
Oh yeah, it should be quicker than that! [Laughs]
Could you tell us: Is one of them a movie? A drama?
One is a movie, and one is a television series.
You’ve got to keep us posted! I want to end this interview with a bit of rapid-fire. Whenever I get obsessed with an actor after watching a film of theirs, I look up their IMDb page that night. I think your profile is lacking much-needed trivia!
Yeah! I also think some of their information is a bit weird. There’s something on Wikipedia that says my name is Iqbal Amin, which just isn’t true. So I don’t know where they got that from! My last name is Iqbal, but Amin is not my name.
We can clear it up now “on the record”! First one: What’s one of your biggest irrational fears?
Biggest irrational fear? God, because I know it’s supposed to be rapid-fire. I’m trying to think. Give me an example.
For me, I’m scared of museums.
Why are you scared of museums? [Laughs]
It’s all the dead stuff, the smell. It really freaks me out. If I have to go in, I’ll rush in, rush out, and then put all my clothes in high heat.
Museum? No, I haven’t got a fear of museums. The things I’m thinking of are just normal fears… Just if you put your foot in something when you’ve just gotten ready, you’ve just got dressed, and then say if you stood in something really horrible outside… That kind of thing is just so annoying…
What’s your idea of a perfect day?
A perfect day would be not having to get up. You wake up naturally with some sunlight as it hits your face, as the curtains, just a gentle breeze by the ocean. You have your favourite warm drink in the morning. Then whatever loved one or your partner just comes in and maybe you have a nice half an hour lovemaking session. And then you can go your own way, have a little workout, you walk on the beach, you go in the forest, and then you have a lovely lunch. Maybe go watch a movie.
And then in the evening, you’re getting ready for a friend’s vow renewals for their wedding, and you have the best party on the beach. And then there’s a late-night football match on the beach, and you all play, and it’s the greatest day ever.
I mean that’s beautiful. It deserved more than a rapid-fire. Next one: Is there a performance by another actor that you really love?
I would say I really love Benicio del Toro, and I’m just thinking the first thing that comes to my head! His performance in Traffic…is pretty unbelievable. I mean anything he does! I’m…blown away by because he’s creative… Benito in 21 Grams as well!
Is there a favourite acting performance of yours besides “Wuthering Heights”?
I’m trying to think what I’ve done… Well, I would say the film Profile we did with Timur Bekmambetov, which was all set on screens and stuff, and it was interesting. Just the way we shot that and the freedom we were allowed to do things, and improv, and at writing scenes and creative—not necessarily the performance. I just feel like I felt confident in that performance because it was so freeing the way we did stuff.
Also! I would say Philip Seymour Hoffman, just in general, any performance he ever did, just unbelievable. But also Philip Seymour Hoffman in Magnolia breaks my heart, so I’m just going to put those both in for [that question].
Finally, I know Emerald wants people to rewatch the film because there are new things to discover in every frame. I saw some BTS of one of the rooms that’s printed with scans of Margot Robbie’s skin…
Yes, I have a bit of that skin. It was my leaving present! Emerald gave me a bit of that. I’ve got a bit of that wall, so I’ll keep that forever.
I didn’t expect you to say that. [Laughs]
Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” releases in cinemas on Friday, February 13.
Photographer Michiel Meewis
Stylist Michael Miller at Stella Creative Artists
Hair Sandra Hahnel at Caren Using Redken
Skin Liz Daxauer at Caren Using Less Is More
Assistant Photographer Bruno Mcguffie
Set Designer Charlotte Ingram
Assistant Set Designer Lorcan Berg
Cover credit: Coat Paul Smith
