A difficulty with the standard fast Fourier transform (FFT) perturbation model of roughness in lubricated rolling contacts is that it does not necessarily converge towards the elastic case as the film thickness is reduced; rather it leads to a situation in which all the roughness is completely flattened. This is rarely the case for real engineering surfaces.Here, it is shown that this difficulty can be avoided by carrying out a Fourier transform of the elastostatically flattened roughness and using the resulting (complex) amplitude as the low-film thickness limit of each Fourier component in the elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) analysis.Results give a plausible convergence to the elastostatic solution, which is nevertheless consistent with the expected near-full-film EHL behaviour and which becomes identical to the earlier model for roughness that, statically, can be fully flattened. As expected, hydrodynamic action persists at the finest scale, even for very thin films.