Erin Brockovich
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50 free Erin Brockovich trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Erin Brockovich turned a real legal fight into one of the most rewatched films of its era. Julia Roberts plays a broke single mother with no legal training who talks her way into a law office, starts asking awkward questions about a small California town's water, and ends up at the center of a landmark case. This quiz covers the film from every side: the plot and its best-known scenes, the cast and the people they play, how the script and production came together, and how the film fared with critics and at the awards. A good share of the questions go beyond the screen to the true story, from what happened in Hinkley to what the real Erin did next. It is written for fans who have seen the film more than once, for quiz hosts planning a movie round, and for anyone curious about how closely Hollywood stuck to the facts. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The real Erin Brockovich makes a brief cameo in the Julia Roberts film playing which kind of worker?
A waitress
A waitress named Julia is the part she plays in a diner scene, while the real Ed Masry sits in the booth behind her.
Q 02In a famous Erin Brockovich scene, a lawyer for the utility suddenly will not touch which item?
Her glass of water
Her glass of water came from Hinkley's wells, Erin tells her, and the moment was based on something that really happened, though during a trial.
Q 03Which California utility do Erin Brockovich and Ed Masry take on over poisoned groundwater in Hinkley?
Pacific Gas and Electric
Pacific Gas and Electric settled the real case in 1996, and the lawsuit also required it to stop using the chemical and clean up the groundwater.
Q 04The Hinkley case in Erin Brockovich ends with the utility paying a record settlement of what size?
$333 million
$333 million was the largest settlement in a direct-action lawsuit in US history at the time, and the film ends with Ed Masry handing Erin a bonus far bigger than she expected.
Q 05Erin Brockovich first hires lawyer Ed Masry to win her damages after which mishap?
A car crash
A car crash with a doctor leaves Erin injured, and her temper under cross-examination loses the case, so she turns up at Ed's office demanding a job.
Q 06Which cancer-linked chemical does Erin Brockovich find in the groundwater of Hinkley, California?
Hexavalent chromium
Hexavalent chromium is the dangerous form of the metal, and in the film the utility has been assuring residents that it uses a safer kind.
Q 07Erin Brockovich earned five Oscar nominations but won only one, in which category?
Best Actress
Best Actress went to Julia Roberts, who also took the BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards for the same performance.
Q 08Erin Brockovich made Julia Roberts the first female star paid which sum for a single film?
$20 million
$20 million was a first for a woman on screen, and the gamble paid off when the film took $256.3 million at cinemas worldwide.
Q 09A producer first heard Erin Brockovich's story because the two women shared which kind of practitioner?
Chiropractor
Chiropractor Pamela DuMond told patient Carla Santos Shamberg that another client had a story worth filming, and Shamberg invited Erin over to hear it.
Q 10Which British actor earned an Oscar nomination as lawyer Ed Masry in Erin Brockovich?
Albert Finney
Albert Finney won the Screen Actors Guild award for the role, his fifth Oscar nomination in a run that began with Tom Jones in 1963.
Q 11Which director made Erin Brockovich and earned two Best Director Oscar nominations in the same year?
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh was only the second person nominated twice for directing in one year, and he took the film on after three big-name directors had passed.
Q 12Julia Roberts and her Erin Brockovich director reunited a year later for which Las Vegas heist film?
Ocean's Eleven
Ocean's Eleven put her in an ensemble with George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, and it became the fifth highest-grossing film of 2001.
Q 13Hinkley, the small California town at the center of Erin Brockovich, lies in which desert?
Mojave
Q 21Which actor co-founded Jersey Films and was one of the Oscar-nominated producers of Erin Brockovich?
Danny DeVito
Danny DeVito set up Jersey Films with Michael Shamberg in 1991, and Shamberg's wife Carla was the producer who first brought Erin's story to the company.
Q 22Before Erin Brockovich, Julia Roberts had Oscar nominations for Pretty Woman and which earlier film?
Steel Magnolias
Steel Magnolias brought her first nomination, for playing a young newlywed with diabetes opposite Sally Field and Dolly Parton.
Q 23Conchata Ferrell, secretary Brenda in Erin Brockovich, later played housekeeper Berta on which sitcom?
Two and a Half Men
Mojave desert surrounds Hinkley, an unincorporated community near Barstow that had one school and a general store when the dumping took place.
Q 14Which actor plays George, the ponytailed biker who moves in next door to Erin Brockovich?
Aaron Eckhart
Aaron Eckhart first gained wide exposure as George, and six years later earned a Golden Globe nomination for Thank You for Smoking.
Q 15The real Erin Brockovich's second book, released in 2020, warns that which superhero is not coming?
Superman
Superman is the figure in the title, Superman's Not Coming, which followed her 2001 book Take It from Me: Life's a Struggle But You Can Win.
Q 16After losing her case, Erin Brockovich talks her way into which job at Ed Masry's law firm?
File clerk
File clerk is the lowly post she starts in, and it is while filing that she comes across the Hinkley paperwork that sets the whole case in motion.
Q 17Erin Brockovich was nominated for Best Picture at the 2001 Oscars but lost to which Russell Crowe film?
Gladiator
Gladiator won five Oscars that night, and became the first Best Picture winner since 1949 to take neither the directing nor a screenwriting award.
Q 18By 2016, The New York Times said Hinkley, made famous by Erin Brockovich, had slowly become what?
A ghost town
A ghost town is what it had turned into: the plume of tainted groundwater kept spreading for years after the settlement, reaching six miles long by 2013.
Q 19Studio executives worried that which habit of the film's Erin Brockovich would put audiences off?
Profanity
Profanity from the title character worried executives even though the film had played well with test audiences.
Q 20Which beauty-queen title does the film Erin Brockovich give Erin in place of the one she really held?
Miss Wichita
Miss Wichita was a deliberate change by the director, who liked the idea of Erin having been a beauty queen in the region she came from.
Two and a Half Men kept her on screen for 212 episodes from 2003 to 2015 and earned her two Emmy nominations.
Q 24The real Erin Brockovich pieced together the Hinkley case despite having which learning difficulty?
Dyslexia
Dyslexia did not stop her, and she has called the long hours of reading that the investigation demanded the best education she ever had.
Q 25The real Erin Brockovich recorded a voice cameo that was cut from which 2007 animated film?
The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie left hours of finished material on the cutting-room floor, including her cameo and one by Isla Fisher, both voicing consultants.
Q 26Erin Brockovich first grows suspicious on finding medical records among the papers for which kind of case?
Real estate
Real estate was the matter in hand: the utility wanted to buy Pete and Donna Jensen's home, and Donna had simply kept all of its letters together.
Q 27The director of Erin Brockovich beat his own nomination by winning the Oscar for which other film?
Traffic
Traffic won him Best Director over himself, and its four Oscars on the night outdid the single award that went to Erin Brockovich.
Q 28Which famous critic gave Erin Brockovich only two stars, saying it lacked focus and energy?
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert was a rare dissenter, since most reviews were warm and audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an A.
Q 29Which future CSI star plays Donna Jensen, the first Hinkley resident Erin Brockovich visits?
Marg Helgenberger
Marg Helgenberger's Donna is a composite of real Hinkley residents, and the film came out the year she began her long run as Catherine Willows.
Q 30In Erin Brockovich, the old memo Charles Embry hands over proves that who knew about the contamination?
Corporate headquarters
Corporate headquarters knew by 1966 and told the Hinkley plant to keep it secret, which is the link Ed and Erin needed to win a far larger payout.