Fair Play director wanted to "twist" erotic thriller genre
Chloe Domont's new film stars Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich as a couple whose relationship deteriorates when she is chosen for a promotion over him.
The director of new Netflix film Fair Play has explained how she wanted to "twist" the erotic thriller genre to tell a story about "power dynamics in a relationship".
The film – which stars Bridgerton's Phoebe Dynevor and Solo's Alden Ehrenreich as a couple at a high-stakes hedge fund whose relationship unravels when she is chosen for a promotion over him – has invited some comparisons to the now rather dormant erotic thriller genre that was at its peak in the '90s.
But speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, first-time feature director Chloe Domont revealed that she was not particularly concerned with sticking to the confines of that particular genre when she was crafting the film.
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“I've always called this film – and what I set out to make – a thriller about power dynamics within a relationship," she explained. "It happens to have crossovers to the erotic thriller genre, it happens to have crossovers to the psychological thriller genre. But for me, I've never set out to make something that stays within the confines of one particular genre."
She added that she thinks it is the responsibility of new voices in cinema to shake things up rather than simply regurgitating many of the tropes that we've come to expect from Hollywood over the years.
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"Because I think that that's boring these days," she said. "I think our job as new filmmakers, is to break from genre, twist it, and manipulate it to serve the stories that we have to tell."
She continued: "For me, it's like I wanted to use the thriller genre to shine a light on emotional terror – like that was really the purpose for me, to explore all the ways in which women have to play ugly to survive.
"To tap into that dread, and that fear that her advancement in her professional life would cost her everything in her personal life and ultimately to explore the dangers of male inferiority and male fragility.”
Domont also revealed that one scene early on in the movie – in which Dynevor's Emily explains to Ehrenreich's Luke that she has recieved the promotion – holds the keys to understanding what she was saying with the film.
"That that to me is the crux of the whole film," Domont said, adding: "It's how she reacts and it's how he reacts, that just speaks to these ingrained gender dynamics and kind of where we're at as a society.
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She continued: "But in terms of the male character, you know, Luke and his reaction... he represents many generations of men, I think, caught in the middle between wanting to adhere to a more feminist society while still having been raised on traditional ideas of masculinity."
She explained that although Luke supports Emily on the one hand – and her ambition, talent, and success are part of what makes him "adore her" – he is equally upset that he was not the one to get there first, as he had been raised to expect he should have.
"You see that struggle in Alden's reaction," Domont continues. "And I think that that's really what I wanted to bring is the duality of those emotions and the duality of those contradictions – because that's what makes us human, that we don't feel just one thing."
Fair Play is now available to watch on Netflix. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.
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