Passes the Bechdel test

Hamnet

Name: Hamnet
Released: 2025

2025. Directed by Chloé Zhao, written by Chloé Zhao and Maggie O'Farrell.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
10 women characters. 8 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 9 scenes out of 125.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

The film

In 16th century England, young tutor and writer William Shakespeare meets Agnes and they fall in love. They have three children, two daughters - Susanna and Judith - and a son - Hamnet. Shakespeare's career as a playwright starts to take off but this tests his relationship with Agnes and his children. Then tragedy strikes.

Released: 05 Dec 2025
Genres: Biography, Drama, History
Rated: PG-13
IMDb: 7.8 / 10
Metascore: 84 / 100
Awards: Won 1 Oscar. 99 wins & 328 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Agnes 227 lines, woman
Will 168 lines, man
Mary 52 lines, woman
Bartholomew 42 lines, man
Hamnet 41 lines, man
Susanna 32 lines, woman
Judith 28 lines, woman
Hamlet 19 lines, man
Joan 15 lines, woman
John 15 lines, man

Full cast, 35 people

Jessie Buckley as Agnes
Paul Mescal as Will
Emily Watson as Mary
Joe Alwyn as Bartholomew
Jacobi Jupe as Hamnet
Noah Jupe as Hamlet
Olivia Lynes as Judith
Justine Mitchell as Joan
David Wilmot as John
Louisa Harland as Rowan
Freya Hannan-Mills as Eliza
Bodhi Rae Breathnach as Susanna
Zac Wishart as Joan's Boy 1
James Lintern as Joan's Boy 2
Eva Wishart as Joan's Girl 1
Effie Linnen as Joan's Girl 2
Dainton Anderson as Edmond
James Skinner as Gilbert
Elliot Baxter as Richard
Faith Delaney as Young Agnes
Smylie Bradwell as Young Bartholomew
Laura Guest as Midwife
John Mackay as Priest
Albert McCormick as Boy in Window
Eliah Arnstjerna as Drum Player
Edward Anderson as Flute Player
El Simons as Ophelia
Sam Woolf as Bernardo
Hera Gibson as Francisco
Jack Shalloo as Marcellus
Raphael Goold as Horatio
Shaun Mason as Claudius
Matthew Tennyson as Gertrude
Clay Russell as Laertes
Javier Marzan as Fool

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 6% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 125

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 3	0	1
4 to 6	17	15
7 to 9	11	2
10 to 12	12	13
13 to 15	0	0
16 to 18	0	0
19 to 21	2	6
22 to 24	17	18
25 to 27	0	4
28 to 30	7	7
31 to 33	12	2
34 to 36	21	19
37 to 39	1	2
40 to 42	0	0
43 to 45	28	22
46 to 48	22	25
49 to 51	7	0
52 to 54	25	7
55 to 57	8	4
58 to 60	13	15
61 to 63	1	22
64 to 66	12	11
67 to 69	0	0
70 to 72	3	5
73 to 75	3	4
76 to 78	12	1
79 to 81	6	13
82 to 84	10	0
85 to 87	23	10
88 to 90	19	13
91 to 93	9	8
94 to 96	17	0
97 to 99	4	10
100 to 102	20	22
103 to 105	0	0
106 to 108	0	0
109 to 111	19	0
112 to 114	0	3
115 to 117	2	2
118 to 120	10	35
121 to 123	7	4
124 to 125	1	11

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

MARY: Not the eldest daughter? MARY: Best be wary of her. It is said the girl is the child of a forest witch. They say she is passing strange, touched, perhaps mad. ELIZA: I have seen her once, wandering the backroads at will, with a hawk on her arm - MARY: A hawk. At Hewlands?

AGNES: Two of you.. MARY: Agnes, come to the stool. It is ready. It is here. We shall help you. AGNES: ...Two of you standing at my deathbed...I always thought they would be my children..it turns out to be you...

AGNES: ...Why isn’t she crying? MARY: She lives not. AGNES: Let me have her...

SUSANNA: We all know they’ve swapped clothes. How long are we going to pretend we don’t? AGNES: We shall pretend for as long as they still think they are the same -

JUDITH: When the hurly-bu rly’s done, when the battle’s lost and won. SUSANNA: That will be ere the set of sun.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 53 are women's.

381 lines from women, 336 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

10 women and 21 men in the cast. 8 women and 14 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 2 of 761. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 27 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 52% of the words (4,111), men 48% (3,828). Women have 53% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

10 of the 16 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 53% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Chloé Zhao (woman)
Written by: Chloé Zhao (woman), Maggie O'Farrell (woman)
From the novel by: Maggie O'Farrell (woman)
Produced by: Liza Marshall (woman), Sam Mendes (man), Pippa Harris (woman), Steven Spielberg (man), Nicolas Gonda (man)
Shot by: Łukasz Żal (man)
Edited by: Affonso Gonçalves (man), Chloé Zhao (woman)
Music by: Max Richter (man)
Production design by: Fiona Crombie (woman)
Costumes by: Malgosia Turzanska (woman)
Cast by: Nina Gold (woman)