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Passes the Bechdel test

My Week with Marilyn

2011. Directed by Simon Curtis, written by Adrian Hodges and Colin Clark.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    8 women characters. 7 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 3 scenes out of 168.
  3. 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.

Poster for My Week with Marilyn

The film

Sir Laurence Olivier (Sir Kenneth Branagh) is making a movie in London. Young Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), an eager film student, wants to be involved and he navigates himself a job on the set. When movie star Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) arrives for the start of shooting, all of London is excited to see the blonde bombshell, while Olivier is struggling to meet her many demands and acting ineptness, and Colin is intrigued by her. Colin's intrigue is met when Marilyn invites him into her inner world where she struggles with her fame, her beauty, and her desire to be a great actress.

Released
23 Dec 2011
Genres
Biography, Drama
Rated
R
IMDb
6.9 / 10
Metascore
65 / 100
Awards
Nominated for 2 Oscars. 18 wins & 64 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Colin 226 lines, man
  2. Marilyn 168 lines, woman
  3. Olivier 119 lines, man
  4. Milton 53 lines, man
  5. Lucy 35 lines, woman
  6. Perceval 32 lines, man
  7. Roger 32 lines, man
  8. Paula 29 lines, woman
  9. Orton 27 lines, man
  10. Vivien 27 lines, woman
Full cast, 40 people
  • Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe
  • Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier
  • Eddie Redmayne as Colin Clark
  • Dominic Cooper as Milton Greene
  • Philip Jackson as Roger Smith
  • Derek Jacobi as Sir Owen Morshead
  • Toby Jones as Arthur Jacobs
  • Michael Kitchen as Hugh Perceval
  • Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh
  • Simon Russell Beale as Cotes-Preedy
  • Dougray Scott as Arthur Miller
  • Zoë Wanamaker as Paula Strasberg
  • Emma Watson as Lucy
  • Judi Dench as Dame Sybil Thorndike
  • Jim Carter as Barry
  • Richard Clifford as Richard Wattis
  • Robert Portal as David Orton
  • Pip Torrens as Sir Kenneth Clark
  • Geraldine Somerville as Lady Jane Clark
  • Miranda Raison as Vanessa
  • Karl Moffatt as Jack Cardiff
  • Victor McGuire as Andy
  • Richard Attlee as Reporter #1
  • Michael Hobbs as Reporter #2
  • Brooks Livermore as Reporter #3
  • Rod O'Grady as Reporter #4
  • Gerard Horan as Trevor
  • Alex Lowe as Denys Coop
  • Georgie Glen as Rosamund Greenwood
  • Richard Shelton as Waiter
  • Peter Wight as Lucy's Father
  • Paul Herzberg as Paul Hardwick
  • James Clay as Jeremy Spenser
  • Des McAleer as Senior Policeman
  • Jem Wall as Spectator
  • Ben Sando as Schoolboy #1
  • Josh Morris as Schoolboy #2
  • David Rintoul as Dr. Connell
  • Sean Vanderwilt as Male Dancer #1
  • Adam Perry as Male Dancer #2

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 2% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 168

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

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 400
5 to 879
9 to 1221
13 to 16014
17 to 20710
21 to 24616
25 to 28011
29 to 32018
33 to 36032
37 to 40122
41 to 441328
45 to 48517
49 to 5277
53 to 561522
57 to 6005
61 to 64918
65 to 682220
69 to 7265
73 to 76615
77 to 8076
81 to 841730
85 to 88019
89 to 9217
93 to 96823
97 to 1001511
101 to 1041427
105 to 10814
109 to 112628
113 to 1161319
117 to 120613
121 to 1241212
125 to 12899
129 to 132167
133 to 136024
137 to 1402628
141 to 14416
145 to 1481513
149 to 152819
153 to 15634
157 to 160518
161 to 164710
165 to 16800

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.
SYBIL THORNDIKE: That was perfect, Marilyn. You're Elsie to the life! MARILYN smiles awkwardly, not really believing her but SYBIL carries on with complete c… MARILYN: Can I?
MARILYN: I can't do this. I can't. PAULA: You can do it. You can't fail. You will have more pain, you will suffer more but you will create. All you need is time. PAULA: Remember, Marilyn, a tree is never just a tree. What kind of tree is Elsie? An elm tree? A birch tree?
PAULA: You have no idea of your position in the world, Marilyn. You are the greatest actress there's ever been. Not just actress. The greatest woma… PAULA: It's hard now, but believe me you will survive this and go on to better things. Your life is ahead of you. You're young, just beginning. MARILYN: I'm so tired of feeling scared. Life is so shitty. I hate it. It hurts too much.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 33 are women's.

296 lines from women, 607 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

8 women and 24 men in the cast. 7 women and 21 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 7 of 917. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 88 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 36% of the words (4,974), men 64% (8,662). Women have 33% of the lines, so their lines run longer 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

Exhibit F: behind the camera

4 of the 13 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 35% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Simon Curtis (man)
Written by
Adrian Hodges (man)
Produced by
Harvey Weinstein (man), David Parfitt (man)
Shot by
Ben Smithard (man)
Edited by
Adam Recht (gender not listed)
Music by
Conrad Pope (man)
Production design by
Donal Woods (man)
Costumes by
Jill Taylor (woman), Martin Pakledinaz (man)
Cast by
Nina Gold (woman), Deborah Aquila (woman), Tricia Wood (woman)

The crew, department by department

  • Sound

    3 women, 13 men, 3 not listed

  • Production

    6 women, 8 men, 2 not listed

  • Costume & Make-Up

    4 women, 2 men, 1 not listed

  • Other crew

    5 women, 1 men, 1 not listed

  • Art

    1 women, 2 men, 3 not listed

  • Camera

    0 women, 5 men, 1 not listed

  • Directing

    0 women, 3 men, 2 not listed

  • Visual Effects

    1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 39 on average. Men: 51 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Michelle Williams 31, Julia Ormond 46

Men

Eddie Redmayne 29, Dominic Cooper 33, Toby Jones 45, Kenneth Branagh 50, Simon Russell Beale 50, Philip Jackson 63, Michael Kitchen 63, Derek Jacobi 73

Exhibit H: the money

It made 5.5 times what it cost.

Budget
$6.4 million
Box office
$35.1 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 168 scenes and 917 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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