If you think it’s tough being a female investment banker on Wall Street, then imagine being an all-female group of filmmakers trying to sell an idea to investors for an independent film about a female investment banker on Wall Street.
However, the glass ceiling didn’t provide as much of an obstacle behind the scenes as it does for the protagonist in Equity, a thriller about an executive whose barriers to success seem to stem as much from her gender as her ability.
Although the film’s production was smooth sailing under the circumstances, director Meera Menon knows there are some parallels between Hollywood and Wall Street when it comes to gender politics.
“It happens all the time, this issue of perception and positions of leadership. If you’re too tough, you’re perceived as a bitch, and if you’re too nice, you’re perceived as weak,” Menon said during a recent stop in Dallas. “This happens to female directors all the time. It’s something we’re exploring with this film.”
The film follows Naomi (Anna Gunn), who channels Gordon Gekko in her approach to cutthroat wheeling and dealing in a male-dominated industry. She’s a career woman with no family and an affinity for wealth who specializes in seeking underwriters for companies looking to take their stock public.
As she tries to navigate a scandal that connects her past and present, Naomi encounters two other women with stakes in the game — an under-appreciated junior executive (Sarah Megan Thomas) learning the more devious aspects of the financial game, and an attorney (Alysia Reiner) investigating securities fraud who also happens to be Naomi’s former college classmate.
In addition to playing supporting roles, Thomas and Reiner hatched the idea for the film. They had collaborated on previous projects both on screen and on stage, but hadn’t worked in the world of high finance. Therefore, their mutual interest was based on curiosity rather than personal experience.
From the beginning, the filmmakers wanted to examine not only the career aspect of the characters’ lives, but also themes such as motherhood and relationships outside the office. So they decided upon tying together the stories of three women — one who has chosen not to have children, another who’s a lesbian and is the breadwinner for her family, and a third who’s undecided about her future.
“They’re just in the business of winning people over in a room to prove that they are the best and most capable to sell the story of the company they’re taking public to the world,” Menon said. “That felt like a familiar thing. There’s something to the business of it that people could — even if they don’t understand investment banking — anyone with any relationship to salesmanship could understand.”
Thus began the research process for Thomas and Reiner and for their hired collaborator, screenwriter Amy Fox (Heights). All of them interviewed plenty of female Wall Street insiders at various levels, and were given behind-the-scenes access in a couple of cases, to lend authenticity to the material.
“We were so interested in representing the truth that we heard over and over again. There are moments that are based on actual word-for-word stories,” Reiner said. “We agreed very early on that it should be a thriller. It should not be necessarily all true. We will weave in the true stories.”
One of the biggest struggles for the filmmakers was trying to find subtle ways to introduce gender politics into the story — making sure the issues resonate without turning heavy-handed, or without needing to apologize for their inclusion.
“Our goal has always been to make an entertaining film and not hit you over the head with it. We’re at a point in 2016 where we shouldn’t have to keep talking about it, so we wanted all the characters to have shades of gray,” Thomas said. “The broader goal is to explore ambition in any field and how far you’d go to get what you want.”
