The Nuances Behind ‘Saltburn’s Setting and Its Thirsty Protagonist

Look, Emerald Fennell, you’ve got our attention. After you burst onto the scene and the Oscars ballot with a feature debut at the caliber of Promising Young Woman, a fair shake of the world silently agreed that we’d all be ready to chow down on whatever you decided to send our way next. And still, you went the full distance and cooked up a steamy psychological thriller in which Barry Keoghan is infatuated with Jacob Elordi—you’re too good to us, Emerald.

Indeed, to say that we’ve all been swooning since Saltburn‘s first trailer dropped is something of an understatement, and the anticipation of finding out what will go down during the most unforgettable summer of Oliver Quick’s life will no doubt keep mounting right up until the film’s release.

Fennell is all too happy, however, to toss us a morsel or two while we strap in for that particular wait. In a recent interview with Deadline, the Saltburn mastermind mused how her upcoming film could have easily been set in Hollywood rather than early-2000s posh Britain, noting how the core struggle of Keoghan’s Oliver is tied to his desire for acclimation (take that as you will), and his debilitating realization that not all dreams can be achieved through pure grit, hence the indulgence he’s set to display at Felix (Elordi)’s family estate while he still can.

Oliver suffers from something that I think that we all suffer from to some degree. But in this town, maybe more than ever, which is wanting to be something, wanting to be someone. [Oliver has] worked his whole life to get to this place, to get to Oxford, this place that he’s fantasized about that he thinks will unlock this door. [But], all of the stuff he thought that was worthwhile, it’s all a trick.

Fennell previously described the film as a contemplation on “the sorts of people that we can’t stand, the sorts of people who are abhorrent—if we can love them, if we can fall in love with these people, if we can understand why this is so alluring,” in reference to Saltburn‘s cast of markedly deplorable characters that Oliver finds himself gripped by and jealous of; one way or another, sparks are going to fly, but whether they light up Oliver’s life or burn down the house (or some combination of the two) remains to be seen.

Saltburn will begin a limited theatrical release on November 24 before launching its wide release on December 1.

(featured image: Amazon MGM Studios)