‘Every woman can relate to it’: Actress Phoebe Dynevor on erotic workplace thriller Fair Play

UTAH, United States – Fair Play, an erotic thriller now streaming on Netflix, is a cautionary tale about workplace romances – and it has a shocking “love it or hate it” ending that is dividing viewers.

The psychosexual drama follows Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich), two financial analysts who fall for each other and get secretly engaged while working at the same cut-throat New York City hedge fund.

But when she lands a coveted promotion instead of him, the power dynamics between them take a dark turn and the relationship curdles.

Dynevor – the 28-year-old English actress who set pulses racing in the erotic first season of the hit period drama Bridgerton (2020 to present), where she played the female protagonist Daphne – instantly understood her character’s desire to play down her triumphs so her boyfriend does not feel threatened.

“I’ve had those experiences and I think every woman can relate to some aspect of this script, whether it’s the relationship or just having to suppress their success,” the star says at Fair Play’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, United States, earlier in 2023.

“I saw a lot of women I knew in this character.”

But the first feature from writer-director Chloe Domont is not just a straightforward morality tale with a villain and a victim, Dynevor says.

“I’m so proud of this film and what we were able to achieve with it.

“The way Chloe wrote the script and the characters, they were so nuanced and, essentially, it’s two people who really want to be together, but society is not enabling them to co-exist,” says the actress.

Co-star Ehrenreich, 33, agrees.

“It’s such a wild, crazy movie. It’s got a lot of heart and is kind of sweet, but it’s this bizarre movie that is unlike anything else. So I’m excited by the originality of it,” says the American actor, who played the lead in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) and appeared in the recent war biopic Oppenheimer (2023).

Ehrenreich and Dynevor hit it off on set, which made it easier to portray moments of intense intimacy and confrontation between their characters.

Dynevor says having an intimacy coordinator to guide them through the sex scenes also helped tremendously.

“We had some rehearsal time, which is always a treat, and we were able to workshop the dynamic between us and feel safe, which I think is quite important with this film.”

“It was great,” Ehrenreich adds. “We, quite quickly, had a good chemistry.”

And he thinks many viewers will find the story emotionally resonant.

“I’ve talked to people who have seen it, and they found it really moving and felt very ‘seen’ by the story.”

And that story may ring true for many because it was inspired by Domont’s past relationships.

The 36-year-old American film-maker says: “I was in a relationship with someone who was threatened by me and by the qualities that I had.

“The only way I felt like I could deal with it was by making myself small – in a desperate bid to protect that person and the relationship.”

Over the years in other relationships, she realised she was repeating those same dynamics and patterns.

“And it was never anything that we could talk about,” she adds. “It always felt like it was something that was just accepted, normalised and pushed under the rug.”

So Domont wrote Fair Play as a way to “reckon with the pain and also the shame of minimising myself”.

“It was a story that was burning inside of me and I couldn’t not tell it.”

Dynevor and Ehrenreich were perfectly cast to bring it to life, she believes.

“Phoebe just has an incredible vulnerability and warmth to her, but also a fierceness, and Alden has a confidence but also a fearlessness to dip into that kind of insecurity,” Domont says.