Characters from the 2010 teen comedy Easy A.
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Olive
Olive Penderghast
Played By: Emma Stone
"Ironically, we were studying "The Scarlet Letter", but isn't that always the way? The books you read in class always seem to have a strong connection with whatever angsty adolescent drama is being recounted."
The protagonist. After a claim that she lost her virginity makes her a slut in the eyes of her school, Olive begins taking money for people to claim that they had sex with her.
- Attention Whore: A downplayed example. Olive initially likes the increased attention the rumors gain her, which is why she does not work harder to stop them at the beginning of the film. As the story progresses, however, she begins to grow more and more dissatisfied with the results.
- The Beard: Olive lies that she and Brandon had sex to convince people that he isn't gay.
- Brainy Brunette: In contrast to the antagonistic and shallow blondes Rhiannon and Marianne, Olive is auburn-haired and is quiet, witty and engaging.
- Deadpan Snarker: Olive reacts to the increased zaniness with dry wit:
- When confronted by Marianne:Marianne: There's a higher power that will judge you for your indecency.
Olive: Tom Cruise? - ...And again...Olive: I thought fake losing my virginity would have been more special. Judy Blume should have prepared me for that.
- Lampshaded at least once:"Turns out she bore her punishment with humble silence: two concepts I'm not comfortable with."
- When confronted by Marianne:
- Ethical Slut: Olive and the movie as a whole serve as a deconstruction of the concept. We know that Olive is a kind, intelligent person who is only doing what she does to help out others, but the masses within the film view her with contempt and disgust. The fact that she has not actually performed any of the actions she is being condemned for has no impact on anything; she is just as ostracized as if she actually was engaging in all the reputed sex, and her good intentions and kindheartedness do not protect her from the judgement and hypocrisy of everybody else.
- Genre Savvy: Olive regularly references other teen high school movies and how things don't seem to be going quite the same way.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Olive may be a Deadpan Snarker extraordinaire, but she's a decent enough person. The situation only gets as bad as it does because the guys appeal to her desire to help other people.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Olive is definitely this. For all her snarkiness, she gets into this mess in the first place because she was defending Brandon from bullying. When she agrees to take the blame for Micah's catching chlamydia, it is to prevent the break-up of Mr. and Mrs. Griffith's marriage.
- Meaningful Name: Not only is Olive an anagram of "I Love" (which she does explicitly spell out in one scene), her whole name is an anagram of "I Love Pretend Shag", which is what she does the entire film.
- Motor Mouth: Olive tends to ramble very quickly, especially when she was younger. Lampshaded by Todd, who couldn't really keep up at the time, and by Anson, who comments that she's burning through a lot of topics in record time.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Olive has this seconds after informing Mr. Griffith that his wife is sleeping with a student, gave him an STD and is trying to blame it on Olive.
- Urban Legend Love Life: This is the entire premise, where the teenage Olive claims to have slept with different boys in return for favors so that they can increase their sex appeal. She only realizes how far this backfired when she becomes an outcast at the school and a guy who mistook her for an actual hooker almost date rapes her.
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Abernathy
Played By: Aly Michalka
"The kind that does it, or the kind that does it and doesn't have the lady-balls to tell her friend?"
Olive's best friend at the beginning of the film, whose initial excitement at Olive's "loss of virginity" gives way to envy at her newfound popularity.
- Big-Breast Pride: Rhiannon is very proud to learn that she is referred to as "Big Tits" when Olive is listing her personal identifiers. After they fall out, she demands a sweater back and notes that it was too loose around Olive's chest.
- Friends Turned Romantic Rivals: Rhiannon turns on her friend Olive after she catches her on a date with a boy she liked. Rhiannon joins a group of fundamentalist Christians who protest Olive for being promiscuous, despite earlier proudly proclaiming herself a super-slut.
- Green-Eyed Monster: The reason why Rhiannon turns on Olive and tries to get her expelled is because she catches her out on a date with a boy she was interested in.
- It's All About Me: Rhiannon has a tendency to be make things about herself, and Olive actually tries to call her out on it.Rhiannon: I had to hear from Jackie Rudetzky that you hooked up with some gay dude in a party! Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is?"
- Jerkass Has a Point: Rhiannon, despite her nastiness, does bring up fair talking points against Olive, such as the one about "not mistaking popularity for infamy."
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Basically the entire plot of the movie and the end of their friendship is kicked off by Rhiannon's refusal to hear the word 'No' from Olive. Presumably, the only reason Olive lied in the first place about having a date was because she knew Rhiannon wouldn't consider 'your parents make me uncomfortable' to be a valid reason not to spend the weekend with them. Rhiannon then basically bullied Olive into telling the lie about losing her virginity when she wouldn't accept Olive's initial insistence that she didn't.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Rhiannon was the first to call Olive out on her growing reputation, though Olive shoots her down by saying she's just jealous of her new "popularity".
- With Friends Like These...: Rhiannon is not a very good friend to Olive, and at one point Olive points out that Rhiannon calls her "bitch" a lot, saying that it is not actually a term of endearment. Later on, Rhiannon actually tries to get Olive expelled.
Marianne
Marianne Bryant
Played By: Amanda Bynes
"You've made your bed... I just hope for your sake, you've cleaned the sheets."
A hardline fundamentalist Christian student who believes Olive is going to Hell for her promiscuity.
- Alpha Bitch: She’s the leader of the school Church group and she spends the whole movie telling people they are going to Hell.
- Break the Haughty: Marianne spends the entire film telling people they'll go to hell, but the look on her face after the podcast says that she's now questioning her entire existence.
- The Fundamentalist: Marianne is the head of a group of religious conservative students. Before setting her sights on Olive, who she (and everyone else) believes has had premarital sex, Marianne petitioned to have the school football team to be renamed to Woodchucks from Devils. Apparently, she picked up the trait from her father, a priest.
- Holier Than Thou: Marianne, and by extension her religious group, believes she's put on Earth to enact (her very hardline interpretation of) God's will, and judges everyone who doesn't fall in line.
- Preacher's Kid: Her father is a pastor, and she in turn is a judgemental bitch who gets away with it because of the veneer of religiosity.
- Troubled Sympathetic Bigot: Marianne starts to break down with the realization that her boyfriend is cheating on her. After she learns the truth with everyone else, she looks completely shocked and broken, as if her whole life is in question now.
Brandon
Brandon
Played By: Dan Byrd
"So what's with your new look? It's very whore couture."
A friend of Olive's. In an attempt to hide his sexuality, he escalates her lie by asking her to claim they had sex.
- Gayngst: That he's gay is an Open Secret and attracts bullying. It's implied his parents are anything but accepting. He asks Olive to claim they've slept together to help his reputation, and she's convinced enough of his troubles that she agrees.
- Hero of Another Story: While Olive is dealing with a modern reimagining of The Scarlet Letter, Brandon is carrying out a modern version of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn where the Homoerotic Subtext is text.
- Nice Guy: One of only two guys in the film to be constantly nice to Olive. While he doesn't pay back the favor he owes Olive, it's only because by then he has fled town for his physical safety.
- Transparent Closet: Although Brandon is fairly Straight Gay, he just seems to get picked up by everyone's Gaydar. Unfortunately, that leads to him getting bullied and the homophobic principal refusing to do anything about it.
Todd
"Woodchuck" Todd
Played By: Penn Badgley
"Notoriety, for whatever reason, never seems to benefit the noted, only the 'notees'."
The school mascot and Olive's longtime crush.
- Loser Team Mascot: Todd is the school mascot, which used to actually be pretty cool, since they used to be the Blue Devils; he'd go shirtless, paint himself blue, wear devil horns, and kick off each basketball game with a dunk. However, they recently switched to being the Woodchucks, meaning he now has to try and do that same dunk while wearing a full-body woodchuck costume (complete with an oversized head), with often limited success. This has earned him the nickname "Woodchuck Todd." However, while the mascot is seen as a complete joke by the students, Todd himself is still reasonably well-liked.
- Mr. Fanservice: Todd gets a few shirtless scenes, including one where he is dripping wet having just climbed out of a pool.
- Nice Guy: He's unfailingly kind to Olive even as the whole school increasingly turns against her.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Unlike the other major characters, he doesn't get a last name. He's only ever referred to as "Todd" or variations on "Woodchuck Todd".
- Satellite Love Interest: Except for his role as the school mascot and the only person to not accept every rumor as fact, no part of his character is developed, but he helps Olive out in the end and they get together.
Micah
Micah
Played By: Cam Gigandet
Marianne's boyfriend.
- Held Back in School: He's flunked senior year four times. It's why Mrs. Griffith insists that he's legal and she wouldn't get in as much trouble for sleeping with him.
- Karmic STD: He cheats on his girlfriend and gets chlamydia for it.
Dill and Rosemary
Dill and Rosemary Penderghast
Played By: Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson
Rosemary: Not to mention how you have been dressing these past few days. No judgment, but you kind of look like a stripper.
Olive: Mom!
Dill: A high-end stripper, for governors or athletes.
Olive: Mom!
Dill: A high-end stripper, for governors or athletes.
Olive's easygoing and supportive parents.
- Experimented in College: According to Rosemary, Dill is totally heterosexual, but he admits to his daughter he had a few male sexual partners back in the day.
- Flexibility Equals Sex Ability: When Olive's mother is talking about her promiscuous past, she mentions how her flexibility benefited her sex life, much to Olive's horror.Rosemary: I was quite the contortionist! I could do this thing, I could go [starts imitating the position] I mean, my leg all the way...
Olive: Stop! Can you stop? Don't show me! - Former Teen Rebel: When trying to reassure Olive, her mom describes a youth that sounds like it was actually far wilder than Olive's."I had a similar situation when I was your age. I had a terrible reputation."
- Good Parents: Olive's parents are happily married, very supportive of their children and treat their adopted son no different than their (presumably) biological daughter. Olive's mother provides sage advice when Olive has to clean up the mess she's made of her own reputation.
- Happily Adopted: Olive's brother Chip, who is black, meaning it has never been much of a secret. The film makes fun of Oblivious Adoption when Chip remarks that, "I'm adopted," and Dill, the dad, exclaims, "What?! Who told you?!" in mock outrage as everybody else laughs.
- Too Much Information: Olive's parents do not hesitate to share info about their sex lives, though she wishes they wouldn't.
Mr. Griffith
Mr. Griffith
Played By: Thomas Haden Church
"I don't know what your generation's fascination is with documenting your every thought... but I can assure you, they're not all diamonds."
Olive's favorite teacher.
- Cool Teacher: He dryly confides in Olive that he thinks her fellow students can be real idiots. Olive adores him, to the point that she takes the fall for his wife's infidelity because she doesn't want to ruin their marriage.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Unlike the principal and his wife, Mr. Griffith acknowledges his student Olive's intelligence, apologizes for getting her in trouble, and is even indicated to believe her after she tells the school his wife slept with a student; to be fair, Olive had already told him privately.
Mrs. Griffith
Mrs. Griffith
Played By: Lisa Kudrow
"Because a real whore can't even admit it to herself, let alone another person."
The school guidance counselor. She is married to Mr. Griffith.
- Hate Sink: She's arguably the nastiest character in the entire movie, as she goes even further than Marianne and Rhiannon do in making Olive miserable and doesn't have the excuse of being a dumb teenager. Not only does she engage in slut-shaming Olive along with nearly everyone else despite being one of those who know it's not true, but she willfully abuses her authority to force Olive to take the blame for giving Micah chlamydia, shows no remorse for destroying Olive's life over it, and arrogantly claims that no one would believe Olive when the latter threatens to tell Mr. Griffith the truth, which blows up in her face when Olive makes good on the threat.
- Jerkass: She not only subverts her Reasonable Authority Figure first impression, but then reneges on her offer to come clean, blames Olive for helping her in the first place, and threatens to use her authority to convince everyone to accept her lies over Olive's honesty if Olive tried to reclaim her reputation.
- Teacher/Student Romance: She (the guidance counselor) not only slept with Micah (a student), but gave him chlamydia, cheating on her husband in the process.
