'Promising Young Woman' Cast Explains the Female Revenge Thriller

In "Promising Young Woman," Carey Mulligan plays a 30-year-old woman named Cassie, who lives with her parents and works in a café. She dropped out of medical school for reasons that become clear as the plot unfolds. But what audiences see immediately is that Cassie’s side gig is going out to bars and appearing so drunk that a man will take her home — but to say what she does once they do would be a spoiler. (The movie’s tagline is “Take Her Home and Take Your Chances.”)

[emmiegarvey]

i think the way Emerald used classically unthreatening male cast like Bo Burnham, Max Greenfield, etc was super impactful because it really drove the idea that even the sweet ones aren’t always trustworthy

[laasyaseelam]

man Carey’s American accent has gotten so good I didn’t even know she’s English.

[realmusic]

The romance part was cute until it wasn't :/

[barbaramarina]

the way this movie broke me... you can't trust anyone.

[chelssola]

SPOILERRR
My heart dropped when I heard Ryan’s voice in the tape

[pennywise]

I love Bo but it’s nice seeing the man just sitting there looking pretty while the women talk for once

[MrSotero]

It’s weird how an American accent makes Carey Mulligan seem like a completely different person. She even looks different sometimes, if that makes any sense.

[tiana]

I have gained so much respect for every single man in this film. The fact that they agreed to do this in order to shed light on something so serious is something I am so thankful for. It's not a pretty role. It doesn't make them look good. But they did this to help us. And that's what being an ally is. Spreading the message of what's been going on for like she said, centuries.

[Hamsterprincess]

I just realized that the director is the woman who plays Camilla in the crown - I was wondering why she looked so familiar!

[StephanieTips]

I find it perfect that Britney's music was such a huge part in the movie considering the abusive conservatorship her father has on her

[AnupapayaPoopy]

Bo's cheeky eyebrow raise at the mention of his girlfriend-directed Hustlers 6:38

[definatelynotbee]

I didn't see it as a revenge movie. I saw her as isolated and angry that no one seemed to understand what her friend had been through. She wanted to open their eyes and change them.

[sarahbearbabygirl]

i’ve written essays praising emerald and carey, but right now i was to point out something kind of subtle i noticed in this interview about Bo.

Bo sits back, farther than the girls are from each other, and his light top makes him blend even further into the background. but he’s sat back so much that he’s almost cut off on the right side of the frame, and throughout the interview he mostly just listens to carey and emerald. he seems to be purposefully stepping back, physically but conversationally as well, only speaking when addressed or referenced.

he’s a great comedian and extremely quick witted normally, so i’m sure he has a lot of funny quips running through his head at all times. but because of the focus this movie has on women behind and in front of the camera as well as women’s experiences with men overall, he’s giving the subject the gravity it deserves and giving emerald and carey the time to say their piece before he adds onto it. like it should be common sense that a man shouldn’t cut off a women when she’s talking about the female experience, but you’d be surprised how many men do. but he doesn’t.

and the reason i find that so wonderful because i feel like comedians, and more often male comedians, have a tendency to interject a lot in interviews - which i don’t usually mind that much anyway when they have good comedic timing - but in this instance Bo is recognizing that some parts of this conversation are about things he really has never experienced and therefore he’s letting the authorities on the subject say what they want to say before he adds his own thoughts or jokes. and he’s obviously actively listening and very mindful of this.

i’ve always loved Bo’s comedy partially because it’s so self aware. he seems to be acutely aware of his place in any given situation, and especially aware of when it’s better to stay in that place or subvert the expectation. so i’m glad those skills show through to these serious topics and social situations as well, not just his comedy.

he truly is his character in real life, and by that i mean the romance-montage paris-hilton-loving ryan, without the other garbage. honestly i feel like ryan’s function in the movie may not have been as successfully executed with a different actor because he is so distinct and smart and respectful. when i heard the first line of ryan’s voice in the tape, i gasped along with cassandra because i was so surprised, and to pull that off it takes a lot of subtlety.

tldr; though obviously carey and emerald are the focus, i just love bo for his emotional social and comedic intelligence. he’s one of a kind and i hope to see him in more things, or making more projects similar to Eighth Grade.

[taniadiego]

Like in real life, the scariest part is that normal good guys are the aggressors or the bystanders of that violence, because is not about specifically those guys in the movie but about how living in a rape sexist culture gives you permission to think what you are doing is not a crime. She would’ve move on if everyone around her would’ve act accordingly to the severity of the crime. The scariest scene for me was with the Dean because it shows this is waaaay bigger than Nina, when she says that every week we have at least 2 accusations like this, and instead of she thinking, I have a severe problem where my female students are being systematically attacked and they are not safe, she thinks o well girls like to lie, and statistically only 2% of those accusations turns out to be false, because is is really hard to come forward with an accusation like this, puts you in the most vulnerable spot, a spot you don’t want to be in just like that. What normalization does is that allows violence to escalate. We have that problem in Mexico, every day 11 women die mostly at the hands of their acquaintances, their couple, a cousin, a neighbor, a friend, a police that is supposed to protect you, not an unknown drug dealer. And I’m not even talking about how many women suffer any kind of sexual assault without dying. We needed a movie like this.

[sadie]

"We welcome all and any awards." - I do hope Emerald and Carey do get the recognition they deserve for Promising Young Woman.

[coffeebean]

This movie was a masterpiece but also triggering asf

[Lucky_]

Some people: this movie portrays all men in negative light
The lawyer & father from the film: *are we invisible to you?*

[wsw]

Carey Mulligan has been shopping at the Knives Out jumper store

[t.c.]

When she said in her serious tone "hey, what are you doing?" I cheered. That scene was amazinggg.

[adamoconnor]

Not sure if it was mentioned but when Emerald says she didn’t think she would get the chance to work with people from Hollywood like Carey and Bo at 4:30 you can see Bo reacts with a look to suggest he doesn’t feel worthy of that comment. It actually made me feel a bit sad for him. Love Bo. Hope he realizes how good he actually is!