Lessons in Chemistry (2023)

Brie Larson: Elizabeth Zott

Photos 

Quotes 

• Elizabeth Zott : Children, set the table. Your mother needs a moment for herself.

• Elizabeth Zott : Of course, I would be much further along in my research if I wasn't making excellent coffee for mediocre scientists.

  Calvin Evans : You're on the verge of a major scientific breakthrough. You need to talk to Donatti.

  Elizabeth Zott : I did. He said no.

  Calvin Evans : That doesn't make any sense. Why?

  Elizabeth Zott : Sex discrimination.

  Calvin Evans : What?

  Elizabeth Zott : Well, also politics and favoritism and general unfairness. But yes, mostly sex discrimination.

  Calvin Evans : I don't understand. Why would anyone discriminate based on something as intellectually non-determinative as gender?

• Calvin Evans : Hey, I just... I want to apologize once more for the other day. I was, uh...

  Elizabeth Zott : [Elizabeth interrupts]  I can't accept your apology. I-I would like to, but you don't know what you're apologizing for. And so the entire exercise is meaningless. Yes, I did borrow some of your ribose. Some of a very plentiful supply, if I might add. But you have all the resources, and the rapt attention of the entire scientific community, and you take it for granted. You must be intelligent, based upon your myriad of accomplishments. But you walk around like a... like a... like a paranoid, ungrateful, fragile man. So to respond to your comment earlier, I don't hate you. I just-I don't like you.

  Calvin Evans : Thank you. Oh, I-uh, I have something for you.

  [Gives Elizabeth the ribose] 

• Calvin Evans : [after tasting a cake Elizabeth baked]  Whoa, Elizabeth. You're a goddamn artist.

  Elizabeth Zott : It's just... basic chemistry.

• Dr. Robert Donatti : Miss Zott, I supervise over a hundred of the country's finest chemists, who in turn generate groundbreaking work. They use equipment worth thousands of dollars to generate said work. And so when I hear that a lab tech is using our equipment after hours without proper supervision, it gives me pause.

  Elizabeth Zott : Sir, I can explain. I have my Master's in chemistry from UCLA, where I studied cellular metabolism of nucleic acids. With all that said, I have been working in my off-hours, never on the clock, conducting my own experiments on abiogenesis. I am synthesizing simple, small molecules into nucleotides and nucleic acids. My research is very promising, and I intend to submit for the Remson.

  Dr. Robert Donatti : Young lady, setting aside the fact that you're using lab equipment without proper supervision of a chemist...

  Elizabeth Zott : [Zott interrupts]  I am a chemist.

  Dr. Robert Donatti : Our chemist have PhD's. I could never put the Hastings name on the submission of a lab tech that's proudly waving around her Master's from UCLA.

  Elizabeth Zott : I was top of my class...

  Dr. Robert Donatti : Miss Zott...

  Elizabeth Zott : ...and I believe the work will speak for itself.

  Dr. Robert Donatti : You are just not smart enough.

• Elizabeth Zott : Succumb to natural instincts.

• Elizabeth Zott : Do you not like me? Why don't you like me?

• Harriet Sloane : What happened?

  Elizabeth Zott : [brief pause]  I won.