Characters from the 2023 film Saltburn.
open/close all folders
Protagonist
Oliver Quick
Played by: Barry Keoghan
"Only rich people can afford to be this filthy."
A scholarship student at Oxford who befriends the wealthy and popular Felix.- Ambiguously Gay: Oliver seems besotted with Felix, but repeatedly denies being in love with him, and gives Farleigh a handjob. While he also goes down on Venetia and makes out with Annabelle, this seems more like a blatant attempt to take what Felix has rather than out of true attraction to them.
- Animal Motifs: Discussed. Venetia talks about how her father sees Oliver as a spider, skulking and spinning plans in the shadows, while she sees him as a moth — small, harmless, attracted to bright, shiny things. They're both right.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Oliver desperately tells Felix that he loves him (multiple times) when Felix rejects him.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: The quiet, shy, nervous Oliver is actually a devious mastermind who's planned an elaborate plot to steal Felix's family's estate.
- Beware the Nice Ones: He is ceaselessly nice to the Cattons but that's because he's trying to worm his way into their good graces. Venetia even remarks that there's something disturbing and slimy about how good of an ass-kisser he is.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Though how much it affected Oliver is ambiguous, Felix finds out Oliver was lying and attempts to exile him from Saltburn on Oliver's birthday. Oliver then tells Felix he loves him, almost kisses him, and then kills him.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Oliver appears to be a shy, awkward boy longing to be part of the upper crust. It turns out that he's been lying through his teeth about his circumstances and spends the entire movie manipulating things in his favor until the entire Catton family is dead either at his hand or via his influence, and he now owns their estate.
- But Not Too Bi: Oliver denies being in love with Felix multiple times, but he gives Farleigh a handjob and tries to give Felix a Forceful Kiss.
- The Chessmaster: The end of the film reveals he planned his entire conquest of Saltburn out from the beginning: orchestrating a meeting between him and Felix, winning his trust, gaining a foothold within the family, then seducing and/or murdering the Catton family until the estate is his.
- Consummate Liar: Not only did he make up his entire tragic backstory, he's also been lying to his parents about his time at Oxford, and manages to get Elspeth to accept him as a surrogate son despite hating her and her entire family (unless he was lying about that too).Oliver: I protected him. I was honest with him. I loved him.
- Compulsive Liar: Though he's also a Consummate Liar, Oliver is shown to lie about things that have very little utility. For example, he tells his parents that he's a Big Man on Campus (the furthest thing from the truth) at Oxford, on top of the more practical lies he tells to get in with Felix and his family.
- Depraved Bisexual: He's either this or Depraved Homosexual. His sexuality is never made clear, but he does watch an unsuspecting Felix having sex (multiple times), eat a menstruating Venetia out while she's mid-flow, break into Farleigh's room to have sex with him, and (in one of the film's most infamous scenes) slurp Felix's cum out of a bathtub drain.
- Disowned Sibling: Oliver lies about being an only child, even though he has two sisters. Unusually for this trope, they don't seem to have done anything wrong to him, except that Oliver's parents said he really wanted to be an only child.
- Evil All Along: He planned the events of the film from the beginning.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Oliver goes from a much-abused nerd to the owner of a massive estate after slowly destroying the entire Catton family.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Oliver doesn't wear glasses while at Saltburn (and thereafter), reflecting him shrugging off the nerd persona he had at Oxford.
- I Love the Dead: Downplayed. While Oliver doesn't do anything with Felix's dead body, he does hump his freshly-laid grave. Later, he grinds himself against Elspeth during (and shortly after) her death.
- Jealous Romantic Witness: Oliver watches through the window as Felix hooks up with Annabelle, and later interrupts Felix and India mid-coitus.
- Karma Houdini: For murdering his best friend, along with his entire family, Oliver ends up the sole heir to his fortune and owner of the Saltburn manor, last seen triumphantly dancing through the empty halls.
- Meaningful Name: Oliver Quick. "Oliver" references Oliver Twist, a classic English tale wherein the titular young hero, armed with his moral clarity and gentle soul, rises from an impoverished and abused background to become the adopted son of a wealthy man, matching the image Oliver projects on the surface, at least. "Quick" suggests cleverness.
- Mysterious Past: A variant. How he spends the fifteen-year Time Skip is unknown - does he quit Oxford? What does he do for work before Sir James' death and intentionally running into Elspeth?
- Naked Nutter: He gets naked at a few points in the film: once to hump Felix's grave, and another time to dance in celebration throughout Saltburn after killing the entire Catton family.
- Nerd Glasses: Oliver wears glasses at Oxford to reflect his nerdy, nervous disposition.
- Penny Among Diamonds: Oliver is the orphaned child of addicts among The Beautiful Elite of the English aristocracy. He's faking it. He may still qualify as the only middle-class person in the upper classes, but he isn't poor.
- Rags to Riches: Downplayed. This would be a completely straight example, as Oliver ends up inheriting Saltburn (and presumably whatever is left of Elspeth's fortune) after killing her. However, while Oliver is nowhere near as wealthy as the Cattons, his sob story of having grown up with drug-addicted parents in horrific poverty is a total fabrication designed to appeal to Felix and his family's sympathy, and his parents appear middle class at the very least.
- Replacement Goldfish: Elspeth insists that Oliver stay at Saltburn after Felix's death with the implication that she wants it to be permanent, clearly wanting him to serve as a surrogate son.
- Sinister Nudity: He undresses to hump Felix's grave. At the end, he dances naked through the halls of Saltburn to celebrate taking it from the Cattons, having murdered them all except Sir James.
- Stalker with a Crush: While he (not very convincingly) denies being in love with Felix, he does stalk Felix to be near him and ingratiate himself with him, as well as watching him masturbate and have sex without his knowledge.
- Stalker without a Crush: He becomes this after Felix's death. After Sir James's death, he orchestrated meeting Elspeth again in order to return to Saltburn, but he has lost Felix and doesn't seem interested in Elspeth (or anyone else) in a sexual way.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Oliver wasn't in love with Felix, really. He only tells us this half a dozen times.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Oliver, jarringly, continues to be a Catton hanger-on after Felix and Venetia's deaths, though only Sir James and Farleigh seem aware of it. Sir James senses Oliver's bad influence on Elspeth and pays him to leave and never bother Elspeth again. It works for a time, until he dies over a decade later.Farleigh: What the fuck are you still doing here?
- The Vamp: Oliver is a Rare Male Example of this, given the way he seduces both Venetia and Farleigh with equal ease as part of his many schemes. Somewhat subverted in that he never manages to seduce Felix, arguably the only person besides himself he actually cared about.
- Unreliable Narrator: Oliver's voiceover insists that he wasn't in love with Felix and only ever wanted to be friends with him to get Saltburn, but this doesn't account for his Lost Love Montage, his voyeurism, drinking Felix's cum-laden bathwater or fucking his grave, none of which served his plan to inherit Saltburn whatsoever.
- Villain Protagonist: Hinted at about halfway through the film when his lies about his family are revealed shortly before Felix's death, and confirmed by the end.
- Wardrobe Flaw of Characterization: Farleigh can immediately tell that Oliver's tux is a rental, and subtly mocks him about it.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: Elspeth compliments his eyes on their first meeting.
- Yandere: Although he claims to not have been in love with Felix, he definitely developed some kind of twisted fixation on him, and later ends up killing him once Felix rejects him after learning that he'd been lying about his life.
Catton Family and Associates
Felix Catton
Played by: Jacob Elordi
"I'm really happy you're here, Ol. I'm sorry everything's so old-fashioned."
A handsome, popular, and rich student who is also heir to his father's baronetcy. He strikes up an unlikely friendship with Oliver.- Ambiguously Bi: Felix is shown hooking up with girls multiple times, but he's also very possessive over Oliver and infuriated by the possibility that he slept with Venetia.
- Big Man on Campus: He's handsome, popular, and charismatic, and the script notes that wherever he is, he's always the center of the universe.Oliver: Everyone loved him. Everyone wanted to be around him.
- But Not Too Bi: Felix seems extremely attached to Oliver and possessive over his friends, but he is only shown hooking up with women.
- The Charmer: Felix can charm anybody and everybody, effortlessly.
- Chick Magnet: Because of Felix's good looks and status, Oliver resentfully describes him as never lacking for female attention, and he's seen hooking up with multiple girls over the course of the film.
- Gentle Giant: There's a lot of emphasis on the height difference between Felix and Oliver. However, Felix never behaves aggressively towards Oliver, even when Oliver gets violent with him, and tries to give him a Forced Kiss.
- Head-Turning Beauty: A Rare Male Example. The first time Oliver sees Felix, he's completely enraptured with him. He's not the only one.
- The Lost Lenore: Felix is this to Oliver; he even gets his own Lost Love Montage.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Played with. Felix certainly aspires to be this for Oliver, although it backfires when he attempts to fix Oliver's estranged relationship with his drug-addict mother behind his back, and instead discovers that she is a very ordinary, loving parent whose husband is not only a sober, caring father but still very much alive.
- Mr. Fanservice: Felix is played by the gorgeous Jacob Elordi, and in interviews
Emerald Fennell has talked about having to fight producers for Felix to have an eyebrow piercing, as they couldn't understand why she would "mar the most beautiful man in the world’s face", regardless of how period-accurate the stud might be. - Nice Guy: He's soft-hearted and friendly, and can't hear scary stories without getting nightmares. Though he was beginning to pull away from their friendship, once he hears Oliver's father has died he instantly does his best to comfort and support him. This makes him feel all the more betrayed when he learns that Oliver's father is alive and well, and Oliver invented the story specifically to manipulate his sympathy and bring them together again.
- The One That Got Away: Zig-zagged. Oliver murders Felix when it becomes clear that Felix wants nothing more to do with him.
- Peerless Love Interest: Both Oliver and the film's narrative see Felix as perfect. In truth, whilst Felix was kind, gentle, charming and handsome, he could also be spoiled, entitled, careless and fickle. Either way, nobody else compares.
- Popularity Cycle: It's implied that Felix has this problem: Venetia dismissively tells Oliver that she likes him even more than "last year's one", the implication being that Felix picks up impoverished people (especially men) to befriend and then discards them when he grows bored. He also ghosts his on/off girlfriend without talking to her, and leaves her waiting for him without an explanation in their halls whilst he's out at the pub.
- Princely Young Man: Whilst Felix isn't quite royalty, he's the closest thing to it.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Felix is very affectionate with his friends, regularly hugging, blowing kisses and telling them he loves them, and wears pink and other 'feminine' colours without any kind of self-consciousness.
- Sheltered Aristocrat: Felix has never known any kind of adversity, and it shows. He doesn't pick up on any of the inconsistencies or more outrageous aspects of Oliver's stories, in part because it's something he has no experience with at all.
- Spoiled Sweet: Felix is a Rare Male Example. He's Loved by All at home and at Oxford, comes from extreme wealth and an aristocratic lineage, refers casually to the priceless art they have at Saltburn, and is genuinely always very kind to Oliver — additionally, his mother comments that he's kind about everyone (unlike other members of his family and inner circle). However, he also seems somewhat oblivious to his own wealth and privilege, and can be possessive over Oliver's attention. This ultimately proves to be his downfall, as he's too trusting of Oliver, and out of principle he doesn't tell anyone about Oliver's true background when he accidentally discovers it — and therefore no one suspects that Oliver is a liar with something to hide after Felix's own death, which enables him to pick off the other members of Felix's family.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Played with. Felix is genuinely kind, warm, and charming person, but this trope is invoked over and over after his death, when Elspeth wants to hear constantly about how good and special he was.
Sir James Catton
Played by: Richard E. Grant
- Accident, Not Murder: Unlike all the other Catton deaths, which were caused by Oliver however indirectly, he has no role in Sir James' death.
- Despair Event Horizon: After burying his son, Sir James then has to do the same for his daughter a few days after. In the script, he is said to be in a state of 'total disbelief'.
- Every Man Has His Price: When all else fails, Sir James bribes Oliver with an undisclosed sum of money to get him to leave Saltburn.
- Idle Rich: Sir James does not appear to have a job. In his obituary, he is referred to as a 'landowner and art collector'.
- Killed Offscreen: Along with Pamela, Sir James dies offscreen. It isn't even explicitly said how he died.
- Outliving One's Offspring: He outlives both his children by over a decade. Elspeth even says that she was 'surprised he waited so long'.
- Flat Character: There isn't anywhere near as much to Sir James as there is to the rest of his family. Even when he throws Oliver out of Saltburn, it's not clear if he truly knows what a malign presence he is or not.
- Not Me This Time: Oliver didn't kill him.
- Please Wake Up: A variant: when he finds Felix's body, Sir James keeps insisting that he's just cold while trying to get him a jacket.
Lady Elspeth Catton
Played by: Rosamund Pike
"Oliver, I have a complete and utter horror of ugliness."
Wife to James and mother to Felix and Venetia.- Break the Haughty: Elspeth is shown to be much more subdued, nicer, and kinder when she sees Oliver again compared to the Rich Bitch she was fifteen years ago, following the deaths of Sir James, Felix, and Venetia.
- Despair Event Horizon: After burying her son, Elspeth then has to do the same for her daughter a few days after. In the script, she is stated to be 'hardly more than a ghost'.
- Experimented in College: Elspeth is married to Sir James. She claims to have been "a lesbian once" but disliked how "wet" it all was.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Fourteen years later, Elspeth has cut her hair into a more practical and suitable style than what she had before, signifying that she's managed to become a better, or at least a more serious, person in the interim.
- Hidden Depths: The vapid and self-absorbed Elspeth takes a genuine liking to Oliver, welcoming him into the house and insisting on planning a birthday party for him.
- History with Celebrity: She used to be a student at a prestigious art school and a model, which meant she used to run with a few now-famous musicians. She scoffs at the in-universe theory that Pulp's "Common People" was written about her, though.Elspeth: She came from Greece. She had a thirst for knowledge.” It couldn’t have been me. I’ve never wanted to know anything.
- Idle Rich: Elspeth doesn't seem to do anything except get dressed up and host parties. This has changed in the Time Skip, suggesting that she becomes Non-Idle Rich in the meantime.
- Outliving One's Offspring: She outlives both Venetia and Felix by about fifteen years.
- Parental Favoritism: Elspeth obviously favors Felix over Venetia; she criticizes Venetia constantly (and preens when Oliver tells her she's more beautiful than her daughter), but adores Felix and boasts about him even after his death.
- Popularity Cycle: Elspeth clearly gets sick of people and throws them out of Saltburn, regardless of what they need. She does this to Pamela, resulting in Pamela's death.
- Proud Beauty: Elspeth was a model in her youth and she loves to show off about it. Oliver notices this about her and immediately exploits it.
- Rich Bitch: Lady Elspeth swans around her mansion declaring that she "can't stand ugliness" and snarking that a friend who recently committed suicide would do "anything for attention".
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: When we see Elspeth fourteen years later, she's dressed practically and appropriately instead of the high-fashion outfits she was previously swanning around in and has cut her hair into a more suitable style too. This suggests that she's no longer the frivolous Rich Bitch she once was. It doesn't save her.
- Stepford Smiler: She becomes this after Venetia and Felix's deaths (Felix's especially), trying to keep up a happy facade but tormented by sadness underneath it.
Farleigh Start
Played by: Archie Madekwe
"This place, you know, it's not for you."
Felix and Venetia's cousin, who is also Felix and Oliver's schoolmate.- Asshole Victim: Farleigh genuinely didn't cause Felix's death and is upset by it, and he's falsely accused by Oliver, but he is a classist asshole throughout the movie.
- The Cassandra: He's rightfully suspicious of Oliver and his intentions, but nobody believes him because he's a notorious hypocrite and bully.
- Depraved Bisexual: Farleigh is a downplayed example, by comparison. His sexuality is a lot less ambiguous, at least - given the level of attraction he displays towards men and women alike. He's also one of the more outwardly-unpleasant and rude characters and has (according to Felix) been kicked out of "every school in England" for having sex with the teachers. Mean streak aside, he never does anything quite as malevolent and twisted as Oliver.
- Disappeared Dad: His dad was a "lunatic" who spent all of his wife's money (and her family's money as well), leaving Farleigh and his mother in the lurch. Sir James funds his education out of sympathy and obligation but withdraws it in the end after Oliver frames him for Felix's death.
- Establishing Character Moment: His first speaking appearance has him derisively mocking Oliver's jacket.
- Gold Digger: Deconstructed. Farleigh frequently has to ask the Cattons for money, and it breeds resentment between them all. However, this is because Farleigh's mother is Sir James's sister, and as Felix recognizes, they hold his more outsider status over him.
- Hypocrite: Much of Farleigh's disliking of Oliver turns out to be pure projection. He teases Oliver relentlessly for being lower-class and never quite being able to fit in with his upper-class friends, or having to get by through begging his rich associates for money. All of these apply to Farleigh - perhaps to an even greater extent, given that we eventually discover Oliver's living situation isn't nearly as precarious as he pretended. Farleigh's particular contempt for Oliver, and the multiple times he humiliates him, are most likely efforts to make himself feel "above" Oliver. Most succinct is the way he manipulates Oliver into performing "Rent" by The Pet Shop Boys, as if he himself hadn't already been begging Felix for handouts.
- I Am What I Am: When Oliver points out that the "Rent" lyrics could apply to him too, he proudly owns it and sings the lines directly at the Cattons.
- Jerkass: Farleigh is the most openly unpleasant member of the Catton household.
- Lifesaving Misfortune: Farleigh gets kicked out of Saltburn and cut off financially after being framed for Felix's death. Though Farleigh considers being broke to be a Fate Worse than Death, once we learn what a murderous bastard Oliver and how he engineered Felix's and nearly everyone else's death, we realize that Farleigh was actually lucky that this happened, lest he become a victim too.
- Thicker Than Water: Invoked by Farleigh (Felix's cousin), who tells Oliver that he'll still be at Saltburn after Felix has gotten bored with Oliver because it's his house and his family. This seems to be what flicks the switch in Oliver's brain to frame Farleigh for providing Felix with the drugs that killed him, which presumably gets him exiled forever.
- Token Evil Teammate: He is the only member of the Catton family to be outwardly aggressive and confrontational. (He is also absolutely correct.)
- Twofer Token Minority: Farleigh is actually a threefer. He's mixed-race, bisexual, and American.
- Uncertain Doom: It's not looking good for Farleigh the last time we see him. He gets kicked out of Saltburn and furiously cut off by Sir James. Whether he goes back to Oxford or not is unknown, nor what happens to him, but he is extremely lucky to be alive.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We don't find out what happened to Farleigh after he gets thrown out of Saltburn.
- You Hate What You Are: It's implied that Farleigh's intense dislike of Oliver comes from recognizing some of himself in Oliver's ingratiating ways with Felix and the Cattons more generally.
Venetia Catton
Played by: Alison Oliver
"I'm cold-blooded. We're all cold-blooded, haven't you noticed?"
Felix's sister.- Bath Suicide: Venetia slashes her wrists in the bathtub (after Oliver provides her with razor blades) not long after Felix dies.
- Despair Event Horizon: After Felix's death, Venetia goes into a state of shock from which she never recovers. She commits suicide in the days following, although not without a little help from Oliver.
- Dumb Blonde: Initially, Venetia appears to live up to her very bleached blonde hair by being dim. She suggests that she may be using Obfuscating Stupidity when she gives Oliver a brutal "Reason You Suck" Speech after Felix's funeral, where she shows that she is nowhere near as dim as she seems.
- Hidden Depths: As vapid and superficial as she is, Venetia appears suspicious of Oliver from the start and calls him out after Felix's death. She's right. She also sincerely adores her brother and is never shown actually hurting anyone, even cheering Oliver on during his karaoke performance before realizing that Farleigh set him up to be mocked.
- Hollywood Homely: In-universe and played for laughs in its absurdity. Oliver says that Venetia is jealous of Elspeth's beauty and feels unable to live up to her...to Elspeth. Elspeth is clearly flattered and delighted.
- Really Gets Around: According to Elspeth, Venetia is "sexually incontinent," although we don't see much evidence of this.
- Rich Bitch: Venetia is a rich baronet's daughter who is a Sour Outside, Sad Inside version. She openly snarks at Oliver and demeaning him in part because she can't or doesn't want to stand up to Elspeth, who views her as disappointing.
- Stepford Smiler: The "empty inside" version. Venetia suffers with multiple mental illnesses and seems to compensate by doing very little.
- Weight Woe: Elspeth casually mentions that she struggles with an eating disorder, which Oliver exploits.
Duncan
Played by: Paul Rhys
"Lots of people get lost in Saltburn."
The Cattons' loyal butler.- The Big Guy: Duncan clearly towers over everyone in Saltburn except Felix (who he seems to have a genuinely warm and friendly relationship with). He's able to throw Farleigh out of Saltburn with no pressure.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Our first inclination that something is seriously wrong the morning after Oliver's birthday party is when the ultra-stiff and cold Duncan is spotted with his hair disheveled. Oliver actually seems genuinely shocked to see him like this, and Duncan notices the look and immediately smooths his hair down.
- Hidden Depths: Duncan unfreezes and smiles sincerely around Felix, and he seems genuinely caught off guard on the morning after Oliver's birthday party.
- No Hero to His Valet: It's said repeatedly that Duncan knows absolutely everything about the Cattons, though he never spills or oversteps.
- Old Retainer: Duncan, the butler at Saltburn, fills this role, being loyal to the house and the Catton family.
- The Quiet One: Duncan looks at Oliver with clear suspicion upon seeing him and is apparently in all of the Catton business, but he never comments on any of it, ever.
Other Characters
Michael Gavey
Played by: Ewan Mitchell
"Look around you. It's just you and me, mate."
Initially the only student at Oxford who deigns to hang out with Oliver.- Good with Numbers: His schtick is that he's really good at math, and demands that Oliver asks him a sum upon their first meeting. He completes the multiplication problem with ease, though it doesn't endear him to his schoolmates.
- Jerkass: Michael's only defining trait is that he knows he and Oliver are very unpopular, and he takes pleasure in telling Oliver that. Neither makes him a very sympathetic character.
- Nerd Glasses: Like Oliver, he wears glasses and is a nerd at Oxford.
- No Social Skills: He is extremely badly mannered, surly, and seems to delight in telling Oliver that they are unpopular.
- Only Friend: When Oliver is just another Oxford freshman, Michael is the only person he's more than casually acquainted with, although Oliver doesn't seem to particularly like him much.
- With Friends Like These...: He's something of a badly-mannered Jerkass with No Social Skills, whose "friendship" with Oliver is predicated on his frequent reminders that Oliver is simply as big of a loser as he is and has no hope of changing his situation. Needless to say, Oliver dumps him as quickly as possible, and instead of trying to salvage the friendship, Michael calls him a "bootlicker" and claims that Felix will tire of him quickly.
Pamela
Played by: Carey Mulligan
'Daddy always said that I'd end up at the bottom of the Thames."
An acquaintance of Elspeth's who has been staying at Saltburn.- Adult Child: Despite being in her mid-to late-30s, she speaks like a child and has practically no sense of self-preservation.
- Brainless Beauty: Much like Elspeth, she has no idea where Liverpool even is.
- Driven to Suicide: Though it's not explicitly stated, Elspeth's darkly humorous remark that "she'd do anything for attention" implies that she died by suicide.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Though her lot in life seems to be improving, she suddenly dies off-screen, and even her death is referred to as an afterthought.
- The Eeyore: Her nickname is "Poor Dear Pamela" for a reason, and the script refers to her this way.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Invoked for Black Comedy. Elspeth complains about having to go to London, and it's not until Felix and Oliver push it with her that she says it's because Pamela died. Even Oliver seems more shaken than Elspeth is by her death.
- Killed Offscreen: Her death is mentioned offhandedly, and it's not even made clear how she dies, except Elspeth's vague insinuation that she did die by suicide.
- Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: According to Elspeth she has horrible taste in men, which feeds into her perpetually sour disposition. She mentions having an abusive Russian boyfriend.
- Redheads Are Uncool: Zigzagged. Elspeth indignantly notes that Pamela looked like a cool rock chicken thanks to her clothes, but was crestfallen when she got to Saltburn and learned she was actually "the wettest of wet blankets".
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Pamela has long overstayed her welcome at Saltburn, though it's not clear if she's simply too dim to notice that they want to be rid of her.
