Industry (series three) - In conversation

Industry series three special. Kit Harington, Myha’la, and Harry Lawtey discuss evolution, relationships, and class ahead of the BBC iPlayer premiere. Watch Industry series three on BBC iPlayer from Wednesday, October 1.

Back for a third season, plunge into the unrelenting world of high finance and follow a group of young bankers forging their identities within the sex and drug-fuelled blitz of international bank Pierpoint & Co.

In Industry season three, as Pierpoint looks to the future and takes a big bet on ethical investing, Yasmin (Marisa Abela), Robert (Harry Lawtey), and Eric (Ken Leung) find themselves front and centre in the splashy IPO of Lumi, a green tech energy company led by the British aristocrat Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington), the embodiment of ‘old money’ privilege. Meanwhile, since leaving Pierpoint, Harper (Myha’la) is eager to return to the addictive thrill of finance and finds an unlikely partner in FutureDawn portfolio manager Petra Koenig (Sarah Goldberg).

Q: Kit, can you tell us a bit about Henry Muck? Who is he? And how does he come into the Industry story?

Kit: Henry is a rather privileged young man from the English aristocracy who enters the story as the CEO of a green-energy startup called Lumi. Pierpoint, and particularly Harry’s character, Robert, are helping Henry launch Lumi as an IPO. Henry has all the best intentions and thinks he is doing the right thing for the planet. As well as for himself and for everybody else. But he’s maybe not the most astute businessman.

Q: How did you come to join Industry?

Kit: After a few years of not having a proper, season-long arc as a character on a TV show, I was like, ‘I miss that. I want to do that again.’ My agent came back to me and said, ‘Do you watch industry?’ I did. I love the show. And they said, ‘Mickey and Kon have an idea for a character that might fit you.’ And so, I met with them. They told me about Henry Muck, and I said, ‘I know that guy. I’ve met that guy.’ As a fan of the show and knowing them to be good writers, and them, fortunately, liking what I do, it all came together.

Q: Kit and Harry, without giving away any spoilers, what is Henry and Robert’s relationship in season three?

Kit: I’ve always loved what Harry does in this show. I think that his character, Rob and my character, Henry, were a natural pairing to put together because Robert has come from a low-income background and has worked his way up into this world — he’s a fish out of water in many ways — whereas Henry feels like he’s lowered himself to come into this world. He’s dealing with money, which he doesn’t normally have to do, and so they meet coming from completely opposite ends of the spectrum. I recall conducting research for a different show a few years ago, reading about how the upper class in the UK and the working class both get along — they are united in their dislike of the middle class. I think there’s something of that in Robert and Henry: they come from opposite ends of the class spectrum, but they kind of like each other because they both fucking hate the middle class!

Harry: It’s fair to say that Robert is finally claiming some sort of autonomy, professionally. He has been given more responsibilities and gained more trust, which has made him Pierpoint’s sort of point man, working hand in hand with Kit’s Henry to value and launch the company at IPO. However, over the course of the season, it becomes unclear whether the trust of both Pierpoint and Henry in Robert is genuine or whether he’s being used as a scapegoat.

Industry S3, Smoke and Mirrors, Henry (KIT HARINGTON), Robert (HARRY LAWTEY), HBO, Simon Ridgway ©BBC Pictures

Q: Harry, what was it like working with Kit?

Harry: I absolutely loved it! First and foremost, having someone with such an established and impressive career be so invested in the show and genuinely want to be a part of what we were creating was truly validating and encouraging for those of us who had been there since the start and had kind of grown up with it. And Kit is just such a fantastic actor and brilliant person; he has such fun and positive energy. We were constantly joking throughout, both on and off-screen; we developed a bit of a bromance!

Q: Myha’la, where do we find Harper at the beginning of the third season of Industry?

Myha’la: Harper is working at FutureDawn (the ethical investment fund) as Anna Gearing’s (Elena Saurel) assistant. This is the job that’s kept her in London, bless her heart, and Anna’s really taken a chance on her. But it means she is now at the bottom of the totem pole. She is not exercising her skills; she holds no influence whatsoever, and she’s sort of just keeping her head down so she doesn’t get deported, because she doesn’t want to go home. She’s pretty depressed, but she’s handling it, obviously, and she’s grateful to still be in London. She’s drinking too much and going out and coming in hungover, and she’s not very good at her job — she’s not good at keeping a diary!

Q: How does she bounce back?

Myha’la: She sees an opportunity in Petra (Sarah Goldberg), who is a trader in Anna Gearing’s office. Harper piques her interest — she sees that this is a person with whom she can intellectually engage. For Harper, Petra is an out. She convinces her to help her escape from FutureDawn and into a place where she can start trading again.

Q: How has Harper evolved since we first met her in season one?

Myha’la: The biggest change in Harper is her confidence. When we meet her in Season One, Episode One, although she has a really hard exterior, inwardly, she’s insecure. She has impostor syndrome, completely doubting whether or not she can have a place at Pierpoint and if she’s going to be able to hack it. By the time we meet her in season three, although she’s at her lowest at the start, she’s been around the block. She’s tried her hand at moving in this business, and it’s worked. She’s got relationships, and she knows inside: ‘I am successful and smart at this. I’m clever; I can make my way here.’ The thing that got in her way had nothing to do with whether or not she was capable of doing the job. So, she brings a level of confidence in this third season that we haven’t seen from her before — and she’s totally earned it.

Q: Myha’la and Harry, how has Industry evolved since the first season?

Myha’la: I think our biggest explosion as a show has absolutely happened this season. Every season, we’ve added new faces and new conflicts outside of the bank, but in the third season, it’s the first time Harper, one of the main eyes into the show, is not in the bank at all, so we get to experience, for the first time, who Harper really is outside of Pierpoint. Once we’re outside the bank, we get to spend a little more time with all these characters and their relationships outside of Pierpoint. It provides more information about who they are and why they behave that way. So the whole show has expanded — Mickey and Konrad are geniuses. They can write anything, and I’m obsessed with them!

Harry: The big difference in season three is a tonal one. I think that Mickey and Konrad are now prepared to make big swings and adapt the style of the show to something that’s a bit more out there. The show has always been hyperreal, but now there are moments that are a bit more abstract and lyrical. They’re having fun with it, and it’s exciting to be a part of it. We all recognise on the cast that this time, there are a few beats and moments that aren’t typically ‘Industry,’ so to speak. It’s exciting to feel as though you’re part of a machine that’s changing.

Q: Kit, what did you like about the show as a viewer?

Kit: It had this energy to it, and tonally, it felt very different to anything I had seen before. I think it comes from the fact that they hired a lot of young actors straight from drama school, and they themselves (Mickey Down and Konrad Kay) were pretty green creators. I love the music they use; I love the way they film it. I love that it doesn’t allow you to stop — it just pummels you with these incredibly complex words and sentences… and it just requires you to keep up. All of those things made me think it was incredibly original.