How Chloe Domont Used Her Real-Life Experiences to Write the Script of ‘Fair Play’

Chloe Domont, known for her work writing and directing episodic television with shows like Billions, Ballers and Suits, leaped into the world of features last year with her directorial debut, Fair Play. The film stars Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich as Emily and Luke, an engaged couple hiding their relationship from their cutthroat jobs at a hedge fund. When a high-profile promotion Luke assumed would be his is unexpectedly handed to Emily, power and gender dynamics come into play and unravel their relationship.

Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival last year, Fair Play garnered a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize and sparked a bidding war among studios and streamers. Netflix emerged victorious with a $20 million bid, bringing the film to their platform for streaming.

When writing the script, Domont drew inspiration from her experiences in the workforce, including being the lone woman in the Ballers writing room. Her observations, such as the impact of her success on the men she dated and the pressure to assimilate with the male-dominated group to maintain her standing, formed the basis of Fair Play.

Casting the pivotal roles of Emily and Luke was a departure from her work in television, where the casts she directed were already established. Speaking with Casting Networks, Domont expressed her initial unfamiliarity with Phoebe Dynevor’s work, namely that of Daphne Bridgerton in Bridgerton. However, upon watching the pilot episode after a recommendation from a casting director, she became “enamored” with Dynevor’s performance.

Photo Credit: SERGEJ RADOVIC/NETFLIX

“Phoebe was super present, super dialed in and had qualities that I was looking for in terms of Emily,” Domont explained. “There was such a nuanced sense of vulnerability and warmth, but also a fierceness. Honestly, it was a gut reaction. As a filmmaker and an artist, if you don’t have your gut, I don’t know what you have.”

For her part, Dynevor was interested in taking on the character and the story. She told Casting Networks that she loved how “fully dimensional” Emily was and how the couple’s relationship developed in the script.

“Almost immediately, I wanted to do it,” Dynevor admitted. “It was the first script I’d read in a long time where I didn’t know what would happen next and where the story was going. That’s always so thrilling.”

Having the story set in the world of finance also intrigued her. “It felt like a world that I wanted to explore,” she added.

Casting Luke had different requirements because in the script, as Emily’s star rises, Luke’s spirals downward, giving the character an “arguably much more complicated arc from where he starts and where he goes,” Domont explained.

Photo courtesy of Netflix

Enter Ehrenreich, best known for the title character of Solo: A Star Wars Story and this year’s ensemble films Cocaine Bear and Oppenheimer.

“The role needed an incredibly strong, talented actor to go to those places and I knew Alden could do it from watching his previous work,” explained Domont. “The character needed to be charming and lovable in the beginning and yet he needed to go to those insecure, dark, ugly places while also giving me shades in between with conflicting emotions and conflicting wants. I was very confident Alden could dive into that headfirst.”

As the co-lead in Fair Play, the actor told Casting Networks it was an exciting opportunity to take on the character of Luke.

“It was so clear this was written by somebody who had lived an experience like this and was writing from a deeply personal place,” observed Ehrenreich. “Chloe had a real understanding of Luke’s psyche in a very intimate way, which made it exciting to inhabit it. The deeper the connection the writer has (to the story), the more exciting it is to go to that place.”

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