Promising Young Woman star Alfred Molina has recalled his experience reading the script for the first time.

The actor, who makes a cameo appearance in Emerald Fennell’s debut feature as a lawyer called Jordan, said he was “shocked and intrigued” when first reading.

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“When I read the script, I was shocked and intrigued, and it made me laugh — it scared me! But the scene itself struck me very hard,” Molina said in an interview with Variety.

In his scene of the film, Cassie (Carey Mulligan) visits Jordan as he was the lawyer who ensured the man who raped her best friend, Nina, got off free.

Molina continued: “When I read the lines when Jordan says, ‘Have you come here to hurt me?’ And she says, ‘Do you want me to hurt you?’ And he says, ‘Yeah, I think I do.’ When I read that I just went, what the fuck!

“I can’t think of a scene where a man — a male character — has begged for a woman’s forgiveness for a whole way of life,” he added of Promising Young Woman‘s impact. “For being part of a whole system. And that struck me as very powerful.

“Not that his apology, or his acknowledgement of his complicity, makes things any easier for her. But just the act of doing it, I suddenly thought, this is rare!”

In a four-star review of Promising Young Woman, NME said: “From the opening bars of ‘Boys’ to Cassie’s distinctive nurse costume and candy-coloured wig, Fennell has delivered an aesthetically astute directorial debut that’s packed with verve – and hides an important message just beneath its pastel-coloured shell. ”

Promising Young Woman is available to watch on NOW and Sky Cinema in the UK now.