Jacob Elordi Was Hospitalised During the First Week of Filming ‘Wuthering Heights’

An unexpected shower accident left Jacob Elordi with second-degree burns during his first days on set with Emerald Fennell.

Jacob Elordi immersed himself so deeply in the role of Heathcliff that he ended up in hospital before completing the first week of filming. The cause: a steam shower, a wrong move and a joke that became reality.

In an interview with Esquire, the 28-year-old Australian actor revealed that it all began as a passing comment while make-up artist Siân Miller was designing the scars on his character’s back. “She joked that I should get them for real, like Daniel Day-Lewis would,” he recalled. “I said, ‘I’m going to go away this weekend and maim myself to prove to you that I’m Heathcliff.’”

That same night, at the house where he was staying, Elordi accidentally leaned back against a brass knob that released steam in the shower. “I leaned back and burned my back. I started screaming. It was horrible,” he said. The incident resulted in a second-degree burn, forcing him to go to hospital before returning to the set of ‘Wuthering Heights’, the new adaptation directed by Emerald Fennell.

The director recalled the moment with concern: “I received a message at the very start of filming saying he was in hospital. I thought he’d been in a car accident. Then they said, ‘He burned himself in the shower.’”

When she later asked whether he had done it “in honour of Daniel Day-Lewis”, Elordi joked: “It was Daniel Day-Lewis himself. In the shower.”

Despite the accident, the actor did not dial back his commitment to the role. “I was covered in dirt and scabs as Heathcliff. This time I decided to clean myself every night before going back to set,” he added — an attempt at hygiene that proved costly.

His dedication, though accidental, makes one thing clear: this new Heathcliff is unafraid of the physical and emotional intensity demanded by Emily Brontë’s classic. A commitment that has, quite literally, left its mark.