Passes the Bechdel test
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
2015. Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, written by Jesse Andrews.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
8 women characters. 8 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 2 scenes out of 78. -
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
Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia.ndnd
- Released
- 01 Jul 2015
- Genres
- Comedy, Drama
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 7.7 / 10
- Metascore
- 74 / 100
- Awards
- 18 wins & 30 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Greg 349 lines, man
- Rachel 138 lines, woman
- Earl 93 lines, man
- Madison 33 lines, woman
- Greg’S Mom 28 lines, woman
- Mr. Mccarthy 24 lines, man
- Denise 17 lines, woman
- Greg’S Dad 16 lines, man
- Derrick 10 lines, man
- Ill Phil 10 lines, man
Full cast, 33 people
- Olivia Cooke as Rachel Kushner
- Thomas Mann as Greg Gaines
- RJ Cyler as Earl Jackson
- Connie Britton as Greg's Mom
- Nick Offerman as Greg's Dad
- Molly Shannon as Denise Kushner
- Jon Bernthal as Mr. McCarthy
- Chelsea Zhang as Naomi
- Masam Holden as Ill Phil
- Katherine Hughes as Madison
- Matt Bennett as Scott Mayhew
- Bobb'e J. Thompson as Derrick
- Gavin Dietz as Young Greg
- Edward DeBruce III as Young Earl
- Natalie Marchelletta as Anna
- Marco Zappala as Theater Dork
- Kaza Marie Ayersman as Rachel's Friend
- Etta Cox as Principal
- Karriem Sami as Limo Driver
- Hugh Jackman as Hugh Jackman (voice)
- Cheryl Kline as Rabbi
- Joan Augustin as Elderly Mourner
- Mark Granatire as Testimonial Student #1
- Kayana White as Testimonial Student #2
- Linda Kanyarusoke as Testimonial Student #3
- Drew Palajsa as Testimonial Student #4
- Elly Silberstein as Testimonial Student #5
- Nicole Tubbs as Children's Hospital Nurse
- Joe Fishel as Shiva Attendee (uncredited)
- Jeremy Long as Theater Student (uncredited)
- Zander Lyons as High School Student (uncredited)
- Jake Scheib as Friend (uncredited)
- Jackson Nunn as School Teacher (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 78
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 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 2 |
| 5 to 6 | 1 | 21 |
| 7 to 8 | 17 | 25 |
| 9 to 10 | 15 | 14 |
| 11 to 12 | 25 | 31 |
| 13 to 14 | 0 | 4 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 9 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 9 |
| 19 to 20 | 1 | 18 |
| 21 to 22 | 9 | 16 |
| 23 to 24 | 13 | 14 |
| 25 to 26 | 16 | 33 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 8 |
| 29 to 30 | 3 | 11 |
| 31 to 32 | 21 | 33 |
| 33 to 34 | 1 | 4 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 20 |
| 37 to 38 | 22 | 37 |
| 39 to 40 | 10 | 11 |
| 41 to 42 | 0 | 0 |
| 43 to 44 | 5 | 3 |
| 45 to 46 | 5 | 18 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 7 |
| 49 to 50 | 6 | 11 |
| 51 to 52 | 22 | 22 |
| 53 to 54 | 0 | 47 |
| 55 to 56 | 0 | 6 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 8 |
| 59 to 60 | 10 | 12 |
| 61 to 62 | 6 | 15 |
| 63 to 64 | 6 | 7 |
| 65 to 66 | 5 | 3 |
| 67 to 68 | 0 | 5 |
| 69 to 70 | 2 | 7 |
| 71 to 72 | 2 | 1 |
| 73 to 74 | 3 | 5 |
| 75 to 76 | 8 | 34 |
| 77 to 78 | 2 | 1 |
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.
ANNA: Rachel, we just found out the theme of this year’s prom! It’s “A Knight To Remember.” NAOMI: Knight with a “K.” ANNA: Medieval prom-m-m-m!
NAOMI: You and Rachel seem very... friendly all of a sudden. ANNA: Yeah. You’re only hanging out with Rachel because she has cancer.
DENISE: Greg, I’m supposed to give this back to you. DENISE: Squeak squeak. RACHEL: Dear Greg. I heard what happened with your classwork, and with Pitt State. So I wrote them a letter trying to convince them to let you back … RACHEL: Dear Pittsburgh State Admissions,
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 31 are women's.
236 lines from women, 535 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
8 women and 14 men in the cast. 8 women and 12 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 14 of 793.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 61 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 27% of the words (2,591), men 73% (7,185). Women have 31% 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
5
Two men
13
Exhibit F: behind the camera
1 of the 12 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 21% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (man)
- Written by
- Jesse Andrews (man)
- From the novel by
- Jesse Andrews (man)
- Produced by
- Jeremy Dawson (man), Dan Fogelman (man), Steven M. Rales (man)
- Shot by
- Chung Chung-hoon (man)
- Edited by
- David Trachtenberg (man)
- Music by
- Brian Eno (man), Nico Muhly (man)
- Production design by
- Gerald Sullivan (man)
- Cast by
- Angela Demo (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
0 women, 9 men
-
Production
3 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 5 men
-
Art
2 women, 1 men, 2 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 0 men, 5 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 2 men
-
Camera
0 women, 2 men
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 0 men, 2 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 31 on average. Men: 29 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Chelsea Zhang 18, Katherine Hughes 20, Olivia Cooke 21, Connie Britton 48, Molly Shannon 50
Men
RJ Cyler 20, Masam Holden 21, Thomas Mann 23, Jon Bernthal 38, Nick Offerman 44
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 78 scenes and 793 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
