Passes the Bechdel test

Pitch Perfect

Name: Pitch Perfect
Released: 2012

2012. Directed by Jason Moore, written by Kay Cannon and Mickey Rapkin.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
25 women characters. 29 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 20 scenes out of 72.
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

The Barden Bellas are a collegiate, all-girls a cappella singing group thriving on female pop songs and their perfect looks. After a disastrous failing at last year's finals, they are forced to regroup. Among the new recruits is freshman Beca, an independent, aspiring DJ with no interest in the college life. But after she meets Jesse, from the rival all-male a cappella group, Beca has a new outlook and takes it upon herself to help the Bellas find their new look and sound and get back into the competition.

Released: 05 Oct 2012
Genres: Comedy, Music, Romance
Rated: PG-13
IMDb: 7.1 / 10
Metascore: 66 / 100
Awards: 9 wins & 20 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Beca 171 lines, woman
Aubrey 129 lines, woman
Jesse 83 lines, man
Chloe 79 lines, woman
Fat Amy 55 lines, woman
Bumper 36 lines, man
Dr. Mitchell 31 lines, man
Benji 26 lines, man
Luke 24 lines, man
Cynthia Rose 23 lines, woman

Full cast, 125 people

Anna Kendrick as Beca Mitchell
Anna Camp as Aubrey Posen
Brittany Snow as Chloe Beale
Skylar Astin as Jesse Swanson
Rebel Wilson as Fat Amy
Ester Dean as Cynthia Rose
Hana Mae Lee as Lilly Onakuramara
Adam Devine as Bumper Allen
Elizabeth Banks as Gail Abernathy-McKadden
Ben Platt as Benji Applebaum
Alexis Knapp as Stacie Conrad
Utkarsh Ambudkar as Donald
Kelley Jakle as Jessica
Shelley Regner as Ashley
Caroline Fourmy as Mary Elise
Wanetah Walmsley as Denise
Nicole Lovince as Kori
Michael Viruet as Unicycle
David Del Rio as Kolio
John Michael Higgins as John Smith
John Benjamin Hickey as Dr. Mitchell
Freddie Stroma as Luke
Jinhee Joung as Kimmy Jin
Jacob Wysocki as Justin
Jawan Harris as Timothy
Richard Kohnke as Football Player - ATO
Scott Shilstone as Frat Boy - ATO
Brock Kelly as Howie - ATO
Drew Battles as Emcee at Regionals
Katrina Despain as UMass Greeter
Cameron Deane Stewart as Tom
Kether Donohue as Alice
Karen Gonzales as Barb
Lauren Gros as RIAC Representative #1
Alexander Biglane as RIAC Representative #2
Michael Alix as Jewish Student
Tyler Forrest as High Note #1
Joe Lo Truglio as Clef #1
Har Mar Superstar as Clef #2
Jason Jones as Clef #3
Donald Faison as Clef #4
Jabari Thomas as Emcee - Opening
Judd Lormand as Emcee at Semi-Finals
Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Tommy
Steven Bailey as Treble #1
Michael Anaya as Treble #2
Gregory Gorenc as Treble #3
Brian Silver as Treble #4
Wes Lagarde as Treble #5
Jonathan Brannan as Opening Treble #1
Donald Watkins as Opening Treble #2
Jessica Jain as High Note #2
Nate Howard as High Note #7
Ben Haist as BU Harmonics #1
Rose Davis as BU Harmonics #2
Emma Graves as BU Harmonics #4
Emily Rodriguez as BU Harmonics #5
Sawyer McLeod as BU Harmonics #6
Chase Cooksey as BU Harmonics #7
Adam Gilbert as BU Harmonics #8
Megan Dupre as Opening Bellas #1
Brittney Alger as Opening Bellas #2
Monika Guiberteau as Opening Bellas #3
Jessica Poumaroux as Opening Bellas #3
Jackie Tuttle as Opening Bellas #5
Elizabeth Chance as Opening Bellas #6
Margo Melancon as Opening Bellas #7
Brooke Fontenot as Opening Bellas #8
C.J. Perry Barnyashev as Opening Bellas #9 / Footnote #5
Maya Estephanos as Sockapella #1
Brian Mason as Sockapella #2
Xavier Wilcher as Sockapella #3
Julia Friedman as Sockapella #4
Esther Long as Sockapella #5
Aakomon Jones as Sockapella #6
Sora Connor as Footnote #2
Elise Wilson as Footnote #3
Sean Bankhead as Footnote #4
Matthew Laraway as Footnote #6
Madison Benson as Footnote #7
Kenneth Tipton as Footnote #8
Jeremy Strong as Footnote #9
Dylan Cheek as Footnote #10
Naeemah McCowan as Footnote #11
Allison Sahonic as Footnote #12
Codie L. Wiggins as Footnote #13
Kelly Snow as Hullabahoo #1
Nathan Swedberg as Hullabahoo #2
Matthew Savarese as Hullabahoo #3
Sanford Williams as Hullabahoo #4
Charles Miller as Hullabahoo #5
Brandon Borror-Chappell as Hullabahoo #6
Sean McDonald as Hullabahoo #7
Nicholas Cafero as Hullabahoo #8
Alexander Fabian as Hullabahoo #9
Paul Ruess as Hullabahoo #10
Andrew O'Shanick as Hullabahoo #11
Samuel Brennan as Hullabahoo #12
Thaddeus Potter as Hullabahoo #13
Jacob Mainwaring as Hullabahoo #14
Alexander Sneider as Hullabahoo #15
William Laverack as Hullabahoo #16
Renaldo McClinton as Rapper #1
Richard Coleman as ND Auditioner #1
Margaret Osburn as ND Auditioner #2
Dan Iwrey as ND Auditioner #3
Ali Bloomston as ND Auditioner #4
Shawn Barry as ND Auditioner #5
Alexandra Weinroth as ND Auditioner #6
Ciera Dawn Washington as ND Auditioner #7
Felipe Fuentes as ND Auditioner #9
Glen Aucoin as Beatboxer
Deke Sharon as Male Voice #1
Ed Boyer as Male Voice #2
Brandon Kitchel as Male Voice #3
Jasper Randall as Male Voice #4
Drew Seeley as Male Voice #5
Jeff Lewis as Male Voice #6
Laura Dickinson as Female Voice #1
Candice Helfand as Female Voice #2
Windy Wagner as Female Voice #3
Jessica Rotter as Female Voice #4
Kari Kimmel as Female Voice #5
Kala Balch as Female Voice #6
Emily Benford as Female Voice #7

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 8% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 72

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	0
3 to 4	1	0
5 to 6	2	4
7 to 8	19	9
9 to 10	4	2
11 to 12	2	0
13 to 14	2	2
15 to 16	11	17
17 to 18	2	11
19 to 20	44	11
21 to 22	8	18
23 to 24	31	13
25 to 26	12	10
27 to 28	5	9
29 to 30	7	2
31 to 32	13	12
33 to 34	85	15
35 to 36	35	31
37 to 38	24	0
39 to 40	2	6
41 to 42	0	5
43 to 44	7	4
45 to 46	24	5
47 to 48	33	27
49 to 50	29	11
51 to 52	16	12
53 to 54	14	4
55 to 56	1	2
57 to 58	10	8
59 to 60	16	0
61 to 62	7	15
63 to 64	9	4
65 to 66	62	9
67 to 68	14	1
69 to 70	4	4
71 to 72	7	6

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.

ALICE: One, two, three, four... ALICE: RAMBOON NA BOO YEAH!/I, I GOTTA NEW LIFE, YOU WOULD HARDLY RECOGNIZE ME, I’M SO GLAD... GAIL: So just how did the Bellas make it to the finals?

GREETER: Hi there! Welcome to Barden University. What dorm? BECA: Baker Hall, I think. GREETER: Okay, here’s what you’re going to do. Take that first right...

BECA: Great. So instead of getting real world experience in what I actually want to do with my life, I’ll spend four years studying on the grass. KIMMY JIN: I’m going to the Activities Fair. BECA: Well then so am I. I’m going to go with my super-good friend, Kimmy Jin.

AUBREY: I will stop at nothing to take down those dicklicks. [ALT: suck butts] CHLOE: Hey, Barb! Gonna audition this year? We have openings. BARB: Oh, now that you’ve puked your way to the bottom, you might actually consider me? I’ve auditioned three times and never got in because you s… BARB: The word’s out. The Bellas’s are the laughing stock of a cappella. Good look recruiting this year, douche-b’s.

AUBREY: You call yourself Fat Amy? FAT AMY: Yep. So you twig bitches don’t do it behind my back. AUBREY: See you at auditions... Fat Amy. AUBREY: That was oddly satisfying.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 66 are women's.

562 lines from women, 289 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

25 women and 32 men in the cast. 29 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 928. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 22 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 62% of the words (5,846), men 38% (3,654). Women have 66% 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

3 of the 14 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 22% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Jason Moore (man)
Written by: Kay Cannon (woman)
From the novel by: Mickey Rapkin (man)
Produced by: Elizabeth Banks (woman), Max Handelman (man), Paul Brooks (man)
Shot by: Julio Macat (man)
Edited by: Lisa Zeno Churgin (woman)
Music by: Mark Kilian (man), Christophe Beck (man)
Production design by: Barry Robison (man)
Costumes by: Salvador Pérez Jr. (man)
Cast by: Paul Schnee (man), Kerry Barden (man)