Wall Street Savvy

How Candace Straight ’69 helped launch "Equity," a woman-centric Wall Street thriller

By Coleen Dee Berry

When they joined forces in 2014 to form Broad Street Pictures, actresses Sarah Megan Thomas and Alysia Reiner were on a mission: to produce films with strong female roles both in front of and behind the camera. For the company’s first film, they deliberately chose to break ground by making a Wall Street thriller from a woman’s point of view.

Raising money for any independent film is no mean feat. Thomas and Reiner were having little luck convincing private investors to take a gamble on their Wall Street venture—until they met Candace Straight ’69.

A successful investment banker, private investor and consultant in the insurance industry, Straight has advised both former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on budget matters and is the past president of the Financial Women’s Association of New York. Straight’s financial backing and her inside knowledge of Wall Street helped make Broad Street’s movie, Equity, a reality.

 “I got to look at the script and it really grabbed me,” Straight said about Equity. “You never see a Wall Street film portraying a woman executive. The whole concept—great story, strong female leads, social commentary, plus a women-led production team—I just had to get involved.”

After debuting to positive reviews at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, Equity was purchased by Sony Pictures Classics and opened in movie theaters July 29.

Without Straight, Equity might still be on the drawing board, according to both Thomas and Reiner. “Candy is a dream investor for an artist to have,” said Thomas, who starred in and produced the 2012 film, Backwards. “She was the first investor in the film, which is so important, because everyone asks you when you start fundraising, do you have any investors? Then, she pulled all her contacts out of her Rolodex and started introducing us around and pulling in more investors.”

Due in a large part to Straight’s connections and efforts, 80 percent of Equity’s investors are women with careers in Wall Street or business. Straight can now add the title of executive producer to her extensive resume.

“Candy was superb. She embodied the definition of the word mentoring. She gave us advice, gave us tips about IPOs and countless other facts,” said Reiner, who recently starred in the hit Netflix show, Orange Is The New Black. “Candy is the executive producer of Equity because of all her efforts. She is our official, bad-ass awesome rock star from Wall Street.”

Wall Street movies have left an indelible mark on Hollywood—from Michael Douglas’ infamous Gordon Gekko character and Leonard DiCaprio’s The Wolf of Wall Street to the recent, dark comedic turn on hedge funds in The Big Short. “But women in Wall Street films are usually a side character or someone’s wife. There’s never been a true female lead,” Thomas said. “And actually, this film has not one, but three strong women in lead roles.”

Anna Gunn, a two-time Emmy winner for her starring role in Breaking Bad, has the lead role in Equity as senior investment banker Naomi Bishop, who uncovers a web of corruption when her IPO (initial public offering) is in jeopardy. Thomas portrays Bishop’s deputy and Reiner plays a prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s office. The script was written by Amy Fox and is directed by Meera Menon (Farah Goes Bang).

“I really identified with Naomi,” Straight said. “A lot of things that happened to her in the movie, happened to me.”

At one point Naomi is told by her male boss, “It’s just not your year,” as she is being turned down again for a promotion. “Been there, heard that,” Straight said. One character in the movie struggles to hide her pregnancy at work. “I watched several of my friends and co-workers do just that because they were so afraid it would cost them their job status,” she said.

Thomas and Reiner said they often turned to Straight for technical advice on the script. “For example, Amy Fox, the screenwriter, was struggling to explain what a ‘green shoe’ meant in the IPO process and I told her, just leave it out, because it was way too complicated,” Straight said. In addition, Straight provided serious input on how the movie ends. “Can’t say more, I don’t want to be a spoiler,” she said with a laugh.

Straight’s Wall Street savvy has roots in her New Jersey childhood. She credits both her father and grandmother with encouraging her interest in finance. “By high school I was reading the Wall Street Journal and dreaming of working in New York City,” she said. Another interest was sports, especially tennis, which led her to Wilson. “This was way before Title IX and it was really only at women’s colleges that you could play sports if you were a woman,” Straight said.

Her father died when she was a sophomore at Wilson. Several family members urged her mother to pull her out of the College and send her to a less expensive school closer to home where, “I could pursue something sensible, like teaching,” Straight said. “I assured my mom that if she let me continue at Wilson, I would get a job in New York City and be able to support her. I thank my stars that she stuck by me.”  

At Wilson, Straight majored in history and minored in economics and political science. After graduation, she began interviewing for that New York job. Several companies had clerical or secretarial openings, but Bankers Trust offered her a job in its investment department. Her career was launched.

Within 10 years of joining Bankers Trust, Straight had been named a vice president and received her Master of Business Administration from New York University while attending night classes. She went on to work for Merck in its corporate finance department and later, for several private global investment companies. Straight currently sits on the board of directors of Neuberger and Berman’s mutual funds.

Wilson also received the benefit of Straight’s expertise. She served on the Board of Trustees from 1982 to 1990, chaired the investment committee and was named trustee emerita in 2006. In 2010, she continued in her service to higher education when she was appointed to the Board of Governors for Rutgers University in New Jersey, where she currently serves as chair of the audit committee.

Along the way, Straight dabbled in broadcast production, first producing a year-long series of shows called The College Arm Wrestling League for ESPN-U, and then as producer of Tainted Dreams, a YouTube soap opera series starring actors and actresses from many classic shows like All My Children and The Guiding Light. But involvement in a Hollywood film seemed unlikely—until Thomas and Reiner came calling.

The two producers were introduced to Straight by author and New York University anthropology professor Melissa Fisher, who wrote her doctoral thesis on the “first generation” of Wall Street women in the 1960 and 1970s. Her thesis later became a 2012 book, Wall Street Women. Straight was not only one of the women Fisher wrote about, but she also connected Fisher with many of her Wall Street colleagues.

Once Fisher met Thomas and Reiner, “introducing them to Candy was a no-brainer, knowing her contacts and her knack for fundraising,” Fisher said. “I had the experience of her helping me. When she gets behind you, she’s just spectacular. And I knew, given her Wall Street background, she would be an awesome resource for them.”

Besides providing financial backing, Straight herself offered Thomas and Reiner a good role model for Equity, according to Fisher. “Candy has always been very confident. She has a conviction in herself, she loves negotiating deals, she likes to make money and she appreciates what money can do for you,” she said.

Straight, Thomas and Reiner all emphasize that they were not interested in producing a “Wall Street is evil” type of movie. “I know a lot of Wall Streeters, women and men, (and) I didn’t want it to be that message,” Thomas said. “I mean, there are evil people in the movie, just like there are good and bad politicians and truck drivers and what have you. But the focus of the movie is the women and the challenges they face.”

Reiner said at first she wrestled with the idea of producing Equity and admitted that most Wall Street movies “do not speak to my heart.” But in the course of researching the film, she realized that “Wall Street and Hollywood have very similar challenges in regard to women trying to break the glass ceiling and getting passed over, and having to work twice as hard to get half as far,” Reiner said. “And I started thinking, yes, we could produce this Wall Street thriller that would also have a ‘stealth bomb’ social issue message, and I saw that this did indeed speak to my heart.”

When Straight started her career at Bankers Trust, there wasn’t a single woman vice president, “which is a mid-manager position,” in the company, she said. Today, almost 31 percent of mid-level employees at the 22 largest U.S. investment banks are women, and women hold 16.6 percent of the executive level positions—but there has never been a female CEO.

“There’s been a lot of progress,” Straight said, “but the glass ceiling still has to be cracked.”

What do the producers want the audience to take from Equity? “Number one, I want people to enjoy the movie, but I also want them to go to dinner or out for a drink afterward and have a good discussion about the issues we raise,” Thomas said.

“What I want the audience to think about is what a tough and competitive place Wall Street is, and that women operate very well in that environment,” Straight said. “I want them to realize that women do play a major role on Wall Street. And I want them to appreciate the challenges women have faced—and still face today—in the workplace.”