Making its international debut next month at the Toronto International Film Festival before heading to Netflix from 13th October after a 29th September theatrical release, Fair Play starring Lady Proxima‘s favourite scrumrat Alden Ehrenreich and Sally Websters daughter Phoebe Dynevor team up for a steamy, thought-provoking thriller. For Dynevor it comes after her role in the smash-hit first sesason of Bridgerton, while Ehrenreich arrives off the back of his eye-catching turn in the serious half of Barbenheimer, the global smash Oppenheimer.
Domont cast two actors who proved eager for that challenge. Fair Play has kicked off something of a comeback year for Ehrenreich, who hadn’t appeared in a movie since 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, the stand-alone Lucasfilm entry intended to launch the actor to stardom before it bombed at the box office. He’s lots of fun in Cocaine Bear and a bracing foil to Robert Downey Jr. in Oppenheimer, but Fair Play’s premiere preceded those 2023 big-screen hits, and he gives his all to the part of a man unable to come to terms with his fiancée’s success. Domont recalls the climactic fight scene between Ehrenreich and Dynevor: “Going into that scene that day, I thought, Okay, I’m going to have to push them a little bit. We shot Alden’s side first, and Alden, right out of the gate, went to a 10 and blew the f****** roof off the set. I turned to Phoebe, and I’m like, ‘Well, girl, you’ve got to match him now.’”
Dynevor cleanly hits the movie’s various, subtle beats before unleashing herself. It’s a bold new look for the English actor, who trades the immaculate corsets of Bridgerton for the power suits of Fair Play. She brings a mercurial energy to every scene, one that first became apparent to Domont during their weeks of preproduction rehearsal. “Phoebe will do all the prep, she’ll do all the work, but as soon as she comes in, she just lets it all go,” the director says. “She’s in the moment. Whatever happens, happens.”