Fennell told the Brontë Women's Writing Festival on Friday that she felt a "profound connection" with the book when she first read it at the age of 14.

"I wanted to make something that made me feel like I felt when I first read it, which means that it's an emotional response to something. It's, like, primal, sexual. It cracked me open [...] it's difficult, it's complicated, it's just not like anything else. It's completely singular. It's so sexy. It's so horrible. It's so devastating."

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