A red-haired woman in a clinging red gown leans on a lamppost in a rain-slicked 1940s alley, watched by a private eye in a fedora.

Original artwork, not a still

Jessica Rabbit

I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way.

— Who Framed Roger Rabbit · 1988

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

It is a femme fatale's alibi delivered with a shrug: Jessica looks like trouble because she was designed that way, and the film then shows her to be loyal and brave. The line works as a joke about animation itself, since a cartoon character really is only what the artist drew. It is used today as a comeback for anyone judged on looks, and it is the quote most tied to the character.

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In context

Spoilers for Who Framed Roger RabbitShow the scene

In Robert Zemeckis's Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Jessica Rabbit turns up at private eye Eddie Valiant's office in 1947 Hollywood. Eddie, who photographed her playing patty-cake with Marvin Acme, has helped put her husband Roger in the frame for Acme's murder. Jessica has come to explain that she was pressured into posing for those pictures. Eddie sourly remarks that she has no idea how hard it is to be a man looking at a woman who looks the way she does, and she delivers the famous reply. Dolores walks in a moment later. Kathleen Turner provided the uncredited speaking voice.

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