by James Mottram at the Zurich Film Festival
Working in TV writers’ rooms on shows like HBO’s Ballers, writer-director Chloe Domont knows exactly what it means to find your voice in a largely all-male environment.
Now she’s done just that with her feature debut, Fair Play. Set in a hedge fund corporation, the film stars Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton) as Emily, a rising star of the company. Secretly dating her colleague Luke (Alden Ehrenreich), when she gets a promotion over him, it sets their relationship in turmoil.
With the film a huge hit when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where Netflix bought the global rights for a cool $20 million, FilmInk met with Domont at the Zurich Film Festival, where she dived into the sexism that’s rife in the world of high finance.
Among your work directing TV, you shot episodes of Billions. Did that lead to Fair Play?
“Billions was totally coincidental. That actually happened when I was in preproduction on my movie. But I’ve always been interested in high stakes environments. I mean, those are the films I grew up on, like Working Girl, Wall Street. The high stakes nature of that environment, the toxicity of that environment, it’s just ripe for drama.”
Have you spoken to a lot of people who’ve worked in those worlds?
“I had a lot of friends in high finance. And I felt like their experience in finance was very similar to my experience in film and television. So, I felt like I could organically understand that world, even though I knew nothing about it.”
You worked on Ballers, in an all-male writing room…
“Every show that I’ve worked on has been predominantly male.”
Was it those experiences you transposed to this?
“Yeah. And I just think any woman in those kind of male dominated spaces has had the same experience.”
Is Phoebe’s character close to you in some capacity?
“No. She’s her own character. But I would say the personal element for me was more of the relationships that I had. And those experiences were dating men who supported me, but at the same time, were also threatened by me. I think that’s more of the personal experience that I put into the film. There’s still this idea that me going off doing my own thing, [my ex] felt left behind in some way. Or the idea that me being big on any level made him feel small.”
It doesn’t say much about men really, does it?
“Well, I don’t personally blame men for having these feelings.”
It’s ingrained in the male DNA?
“Yeah. And I also don’t think women handle it well, either. I think as women, we walk on eggshells, and we don’t know how to confront it, and we tiptoe around the issue, and we undermine ourselves. I think that just adds to the problem. But I think this is a societal, systemic thing that raises boys to believe that masculinity is an identity. That success is a zero sum game. And I think that that’s really where it starts. What I was trying to show with the male character here is that he represents a certain generation of men caught in the middle between genuinely wanting to adhere and believe in a modern society, and for the most part behave that way. But also, they’re wired a certain way. And there’s certain things instilled in them and the way that they’re raised, and I don’t think that makes them bad people at all. But it’s problematic, because I also feel like men have never had a platform to express themselves. This is the first time in society that women are surpassing men in education and surpassing them in the workforce. This is the first time that we, as a culture, are faced with this power flip. And we don’t know how to deal with it, because first of all, we don’t know how to talk about it. It’s like a subject matter that’s just off limits. That’s what I think the biggest problem is.”
Is it amplified in this testosterone-like universe?
“Totally. And I think that there was a reason for setting [it] in that world. I wanted to show how women are forced to play ugly to survive in that kind of world, to survive with those kinds of men. And what she has to do to keep her seat.”
Have you met women who have succeeded in this world, and are bullish and hard-nosed?
“Yes. And that’s what I tried to show with Emily a little bit. I think, as a woman in those situations, if you don’t project that alpha-male energy, they won’t respect you. And I think that there is a fear that women have, that they have to hide their femininity in ways. Because they feel like men will see it as a weakness. So, they have to learn how to project that testosterone to be seen as equal and respected.”
How will people from the world of finance react to the film?
“I’ve had some women come up to me and say, ‘It’s much more [excessive in reality]’. Which is hilarious. Because I think I tend to push the envelope, but I’ve had some people being like, ‘That’s not even the half of it’.”
Are you glad that you didn’t overstate the case?
“Yeah. I think there are certain situations… I was trying to depict a post-MeToo environment, right? On the one hand, it is a bit tapered down; on the other hand, MeToo never hit the finance world.”
Did it not?
“No, there’s certain level of power [and] money that you can’t touch. Hedge funds…no, no way.”
Do you think abuse in the finance world might one day be exposed?
“Maybe, but it hasn’t yet. And there’s been big waves. It’s hit every other industry, I would say, except finance.”
How did you set about casting?
“I came to Phoebe because of Bridgerton. And I generally like to cast against type. She had never done anything like this before. So that was very exciting to me. And I just thought that she was an incredibly strong actor, and I was just enamoured by her and her performance. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She’s very versatile. There was a warmth and a vulnerability to her, but also a fierceness.”
What about Alden?
“I’ve been a huge fan of his for a long time. I was excited when he responded to the script. And I thought, what was important for the role of Luke is that you love him, and you’re charmed by him, but also, he has to be an actor that can go to these insecure and dark places. And I knew that Alden would be able to do and bring a lot of humanity and empathy at the same time, and I think that was really important, showing the struggle, showing that he’s struggling between these two, between wanting to support her but also feeling like he needs to get there first. And you see that that pains him; he doesn’t want to be feeling this way. And what I was trying to show is that it’s a bit tragic, because he can’t see any other way out of his pain than through a destructive path.”
What was it like when Netflix bought the film at Sundance?
“It was an amazing weekend. It was a blur to be honest. The altitude and the adrenaline rush of showing your movie for the first time to an audience, showing it to critics for the first time. For me, the biggest thing out of that weekend is people’s reactions. In that first screening, feeling the energy of the crowd… the crowd was on the edge of their seat. They were laughing out of discomfort, the whole film. And they were wooing and booing and cheering, and also watching the film like it was a horror film. That was thrilling to experience.”
Do you think couples will argue over this film?
“Honestly, that’s my hope. And that’s my goal. People fight about this movie.”
Are you expecting wildly differing opinions?
“I think that that’s crucial and important for conversation and debate. No one is going to walk out of this movie feeling the same way as anyone else. Everyone’s going to have a different opinion based on who they are and their own experience and the way that they were brought up. I think that that’s essential. I’m not here to make safe movies.”
Do you feel like you’ve been treated differently in the industry now by men, since this exploded in Sundance?
“I think people recognise me as a filmmaker and a voice, like a new voice. The thing is, when you’re working in television, you’re serving the show. You’re just a day player. TV is a writer’s medium. It’s not a filmmaker’s medium. I think the world is finally saying that I’m a filmmaker. That’s what I’m feeling… that kind of response and energy, regardless of gender.”
Fair Play is available on Netflix from October 6, 2023.
