There's been a lot of talk lately about the lack of strong, leading roles for women in Hollywood; about how women often play the same types of parts — moms and wives, teachers and nurses; about how few women ever sit in the director's chair.

The new film "Equity" is a game changer. It stars actress Anna Gunn as a powerful investment banker, named Naomi Bishop, who's fighting to rise to the top of the corporate ladder at a competitive Wall Street firm. One of Naomi's underlings, Erin, is also trying to get on equal footing with the men of the firm.

"Equity" features lots of women, both in front of and behind the scenes. Director Meera Menon and Sarah Megan Thomas, who played Erin and also helped write and produce the film, recently dropped by Take Two to talk about the film.

"Equity" opens this week. Actress Anna Gunn will attend a Q&A session at screenings at the Arclight in Hollywood this weekend. Click here for more information.

Why this isn't your typical film about Wall Street

Sarah Megan Thomas: "It takes place in a post-financial crisis world, and in the world of new regulations, and in the world of IPOs, a la Facebook going public, and these are sides of Wall Street we've never seen before, and it explores the women who work in this world, and how strong and powerful they are, and the gray lines of how far you'll go to get what you want on Wall Street."

Meera Menon: "We see those kind of stereotypes or those archetypes in those worlds as the traders on the trading floor shouting at each other or those aggressive scenes on the trading floor and most of the scenes that took place in 'Equity' had a kind of, subtler quality to them that kind of explored salesmanship specific to investment banking: being good in a room, to be able to sell an idea, to be able to pitch an idea to a client. The scenes kind of felt, actually, more reminiscent of the type of scenes you'd see in 'Mad Men' and the world of advertising or something like that. And so, just tonally it was very different as it was written and I thought that was really cool as well."    

About the women on Wall Street they worked with:

SMT: "First is how difficult their job is, the amount of traveling, how difficult it is to have a family. What stood out to me most, which is something that we actually put in my character, was that women on Wall Street still feel that they're not at a certain level when they get pregnant, they have to hide their pregnancy for as long as possible, or they will be paid less, or won't get that promotion. If they're at a certain level, they feel like they can have that kid… And the other thing that's really interesting is a lot of these women, they take like seven days off and come straight back, because they're scared that the men will take their accounts."

The surprising thing they learned about a woman’s experience on Wall Street:

SMT: "The one that was actually most surprising to me, which again we incorporated in the film, was how women dress. How, because even investment banking is sales, and you're selling, and you're selling largely to men, and you're a woman. You don't have to hide you're a woman, and you have to be attractive to these men. And what crosses the line between professional, and sexy, and too high-heel? And even the men we interview talking about that in a way that’s like, 'Well I advised her not to wear that skirt, that skirt was way too tight.' And they’re talking about that without realizing we're thinking, 'Huh?'"

MM: "I think that was part of the process of me understanding how to visual this film. It started from that conversation of understanding how their daily routines involve a deep amount of thinking into what they're going to wear and how to present themselves, and I just think it's a whole chapter and category of thought process that women in this world have to engage with that men don't have to in as much depth."  

To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above.