Passes the Bechdel test

Promising Young Woman

Name: Promising Young Woman
Released: 2020

2020. Directed by Emerald Fennell, written by Emerald Fennell.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
13 women characters. 10 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 7 scenes out of 85.
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, though someone marked that rating as dubious.

The film

Cassie, an emotionally-scarred medical-school dropout pushing 30, knows firsthand that some wounds never heal. But time and life wait for no one; defined by a hideous crime involving a bosom friend, the once-brilliant student is still treading water. However, Cassie thinks she has found the perfect way to cope with the painful past: at night she visits local bars as a vulnerable punisher on the prowl for all sorts of nocturnal predators and wolves in sheep's clothing. After all, the hunted sometimes becomes the hunter. And then, kind former classmate Ryan enters the picture; he's the bee's knees, and he knows it. Now Cassie wants out. But everyone knows that breaking bad habits is easier said than done. Could Ryan be the one? Has luck finally smiled upon the promising wild thing?

Released: 25 Dec 2020
Genres: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Rated: R
IMDb: 7.5 / 10
Metascore: 72 / 100
Awards: Won 1 Oscar. 117 wins & 196 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Cassandra 409 lines, woman
Ryan 139 lines, man
Al Monroe 63 lines, man
Madison 49 lines, woman
Dean Walker 34 lines, woman
Neil 34 lines, man
Susan 34 lines, woman
Jez 33 lines
Gail 32 lines, woman
Joe 26 lines, man

Full cast, 31 people

Carey Mulligan as Cassandra
Bo Burnham as Ryan
Alison Brie as Madison
Clancy Brown as Stanley
Jennifer Coolidge as Susan
Laverne Cox as Gail
Chris Lowell as Al Monroe
Molly Shannon as Mrs. Fisher
Connie Britton as Dean Walker
Adam Brody as Jerry
Max Greenfield as Joe
Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Neil
Steve Monroe as Lincoln
Sam Richardson as Paul
Ray Nicholson as Jim
Timothy E. Goodwin as Monty
Alli Hart as Ruby
Loren Paul as Jeff
Scott Aschenbrenner as Jeff's Friend
Gabriel Oliva as Alfred
Bryan Lillis as Tony
Francisca Estevez as Amber
Lorna Scott as Jean
Casey Adams as George
Vince Lozano as Simon
Mike Horton as Chip
Angela Zhou as Todd
Austin Talynn Carpenter as Anastasia
Emerald Fennell as Woman in Makeup Tutorial (uncredited)
Alfred Molina as Mr. Green (uncredited)
Scarlet Spencer as Gabby (Uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 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 85

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	3	17
5 to 6	4	0
7 to 8	8	2
9 to 10	7	0
11 to 12	24	3
13 to 14	11	0
15 to 16	11	11
17 to 18	29	34
19 to 20	15	4
21 to 22	30	9
23 to 24	20	21
25 to 26	10	2
27 to 28	11	8
29 to 30	20	15
31 to 32	12	0
33 to 34	50	2
35 to 36	33	0
37 to 38	1	0
39 to 40	75	8
41 to 42	24	7
43 to 44	13	19
45 to 46	4	0
47 to 48	14	2
49 to 50	17	0
51 to 52	9	9
53 to 54	3	2
55 to 56	0	0
57 to 58	0	0
59 to 60	1	1
61 to 62	12	13
63 to 64	21	8
65 to 66	18	2
67 to 68	18	19
69 to 70	7	0
71 to 72	0	1
73 to 74	52	59
75 to 76	0	29
77 to 78	0	0
79 to 80	6	41
81 to 82	0	3
83 to 84	0	0
85 to 85	0	0

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.

CASSANDRA: We had to do inventory. SUSAN: You have to do a lot of inventory at that place. You should speak to the manager. CASSANDRA: I will.

CASSANDRA: What’s this? CASSANDRA: Mom, what’s this? SUSAN: What do you mean? CASSANDRA: This gift!

GAIL: Oh! Did I just hear the phone ring in the back? CASSANDRA: No. GAIL: Yup. I’m sure I did. CASSANDRA: She has to take a few imaginary calls a day.

SUSAN: You’re dressed up. SUSAN: Where are you going? CASSANDRA: I’m going out for lunch. SUSAN: With who?

CASSANDRA: Yep. SUSAN: You two go dancing? CASSANDRA: Yep.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 63 are women's.

593 lines from women, 351 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

13 women and 16 men in the cast. 10 women and 12 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 24 of 1,006. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 38 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 66% of the words (5,556), men 34% (2,910). Women have 63% 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

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

8 of the 15 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 41% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Emerald Fennell (woman)
Written by: Emerald Fennell (woman)
Produced by: Ben Browning (man), Emerald Fennell (woman), Margot Robbie (woman), Tom Ackerley (man), Josey McNamara (man), Ashley Fox (woman)
Shot by: Benjamin Kračun (man)
Edited by: Frédéric Thoraval (man)
Music by: Anthony B. Willis (man)
Production design by: Michael Perry (man)
Costumes by: Nancy Steiner (woman)
Cast by: Lindsay Graham Ahanonu (woman), Mary Vernieu (woman)