The first scene Chloe Domont wrote for her debut feature, the seductive thriller “Fair Play,” is one that packs an emotional wallop with very few words.

Emily (Phoebe Dynevor of “Bridgerton” fame) returns home to the New York apartment she shares with her fiance, Luke (Alden Ehrenreich), and finds it almost impossible to tell him she just got a major promotion at work. Dynevor’s Emily looks terrified rather than excited to share the good news. When she finally does, Luke can barely conceal his resentment.

Sure, Luke and Emily are 20-somethings who are crazy about each other, but they’re also both analysts at the same cutthroat hedge fund. Emily being named a portfolio manager, and therefore Luke’s boss, with her career on the fast track as his starts to falter, tips the power balance in their relationship in ways that become increasingly unsettling — even dangerous — as the film goes on.

Domont has previously written for hit TV dramas like “Ballers” and “Billions,” and her debut feature’s incisive script nails the finance-bro pattern at their fictional workplace, One Crest Capital. It also emphasizes the degree to which Luke might want to be supportive, but “he’s incredibly threatened by some of the same things he loves Emily for — her intelligence and her drive,” she told the Chronicle on a recent trip to San Francisco for a preview screening of “Fair Play” at SFFilm. It’s a dynamic that hasn’t changed nearly enough even in our post-#MeToo world, Domont explained in a conversation about crafting a story based in part on her own personal and professional experiences as a young woman in Hollywood.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Emily’s trepidation is so palpable after she’s been promoted instead of Luke. Why was it the first scene you wrote?

A:The kernel of this film came from a period in my life when my career started to take off, and yet my successes didn’t feel like a total win. It felt like a loss on some level because of the relationships I was in, with men who adored me for my strengths, for my ambition and talent, but couldn’t help but feel threatened by it, as if me being big made them feel small. But it was never anything we could talk about. It became normalized to undermine myself to protect them and the relationship. I knew that was something I needed to address.

Q: I think that’s a dynamic many women can relate to, since girls have been socialized to not let their ambition be too threatening, maybe to protect fragile male egos.

A:It’s funny you say that. My mom always told me, “The most dangerous thing you can do is hurt a man’s ego.” And you just look at the state of the world and what world leaders do when their egos are bruised, how they act and the wars they start.

With Luke’s character, I really wanted to show a man caught between wanting to adhere to a modern feminist society, but raised on traditional ideas of masculinity. There’s an internal struggle because while he genuinely wants to be happy for her, he’s wired a certain way that it’s too painful.

More than being about female empowerment, this is really a film about male fragility.

Q: Why did you set it at a hedge fund?

A:A good friend of mine was working in finance, in San Francisco actually, and I kept hearing her experiences. She suggested I set (the movie) at a hedge fund because it’s still an incredibly male-dominated world. Very few women have risen to the top. And I wanted to show how the toxicity of a work environment can feed into the toxicity of a relationship, and vice versa.

Women are sometimes forced to play ugly to keep their seat at the table, to stay in the boys club. Emily’s experience in this male-dominated, high-stakes environment where it’s life or death every day was something I could relate to in the film and TV industry. Either no one’s returning your calls, or everyone’s trying to get in touch with you. There’s nothing in between.

Q: You had an incredible premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Do you remember any first reactions people had that have stuck with you?

A:No one is going to walk out of this film feeling the same way, and that’s been exciting. Everyone feels differently about the characters at different moments. I’m just excited that it provokes reflection and questions.

Q: What kinds of questions?

A:I hope people think about how we can dismantle the link between female empowerment and male fragility. Why are those two things so connected still? How can we separate them in a way that feels healthy?

Q: Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor are incredible together. Tell me about casting her in her first role after the megahit “Bridgerton.”

A:She had a lot of buzz coming off of “Bridgerton,” but she hadn’t done a role like this before. I love to cast against type, so the idea of cutting off the corset, putting her in a suit and turning her into a shark was very exciting.

But more than that, I knew that she’s an incredibly strong, versatile actor. And there’s a magnetic quality to her onscreen that’s just like fireworks. You can’t take your eyes off of her.

Jessica Zack is a freelance writer.