‘Industry’ stars Myha’la and Ken Leung on their Season 3 brawl and what’s next: ‘The possibilities are endless’
Industry creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay aren’t afraid to shake things up. So when they ended the show’s second season with Pierpont executive director Eric Tao (Ken Leung) pushing his protégé Harper Stern (Myha’la) overboard — either as an act of revenge or compassion, depending on the perspective — it set the HBO drama and its cast into uncharted waters for Season 3.
“I’ve identified the playing of this role so closely with Myha’la and her character, and just meeting her in life — we live four or five blocks away from each other, coincidentally — she’s become a dear family friend,” Leung tells Gold Derby. “So I just have a heart connection with her that I think kind of was there from our first hello. So I missed her terribly with our characters being at odds this season.”
Industry is a show that plays fast and loose with its relationships and their shifting morals — and never was that more apparent than with Season 3, which received its best reviews yet from critics and a boost in viewership with a move to Sunday nights. At the center of the narrative is the relationship between Eric and Harper, two strivers from different generations who are more alike than they’d likely ever admit. In the wake of the Season 2 finale, Eric’s career continues to elevate — even as his personal life falls apart — while Harper finds herself back at square one. However, thanks to her ruthless nature and sharp business mind, it isn’t long before Harper is on the upswing, in a position of power as the cofounder of a growing hedge fund — a role that brings her back in Eric’s orbit.
“I was dying to get back on the set with Ken. We are great friends, and we love working together,” Myha’la told Gold Derby about working with Leung again.
However, in Season 3, their first scene doesn’t happen for a while. In the third episode, Harper sandbags Eric in a public forum at a Davos-like conference. Then, she surprises him at breakfast, announcing that her new hedge fund will work closely with Pierpoint and her former mentor. Even though the deal will presumably make him rich, Eric is furious. He can’t even make eye contact with Harper — at least at first. When he finally does, the rage in his eyes is palpable.
“Because we didn’t have any scenes until then, the anticipation and the earth-shattering desire to work together also comes through,” Myha’la said of the sequence. “I’m like, ‘Look at me. I’m begging you.’ I’ve been waiting for this moment. Me, the person, but also Harper. She has been begging for an opportunity to sink her teeth into him. And this is the most gratifying, opportune, and unexpected way she could be like, ‘I’m back in the field with you.’ She’s now got a one-up on him like this. She understands this is a great business opportunity for him, and it will hurt so much more, because she knows how badly he wants her to fail. So there was just so much naughty delight and excitement in that moment that I was feeling, and I think the contrast of that like desperation to get him to look and the evilness of the character in that moment makes it quite a complex, interesting thing.”
From his side, Leung said it wasn’t so much Eric’s seething first glance at Harper after several episodes that made up the heart of the scene, but the choice not to look at her.
“What’s keeping me from looking? What do I feel I’m giving up or surrendering if I look at her? What does it mean to stand my ground and not look at her?” Leung said. “Once I build that resistance — and sometimes it could have nothing to do with Industry, it could be some personal thing that just activates that feeling in me — I have something to break, and then, and then the break kind of does itself.”
Industry ends its third season with Eric and Harper again on diverging paths. Thanks to Eric, Pierpoint winds up sold to a Saudi-backed company that eventually shutters the London office, providing the former executive director with a golden parachute he didn’t necessarily want. Harper, meanwhile, has found global recognition because of her business acumen — including a spot on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, for which Eric provided a testimonial — and plans to return to New York to continue her rampage. In the Season 3 finale, Eric and Harper connect on the phone, with their roles reversed again.
@hbo I see you now. #INDUSTRY #HBO #KenLeung #EricTao #HarperStern #Myhala
“I think what’s remarkable about that conversation and his Forbes comment is that there’s a head nod — an ‘I see you,’ on the business side,” Myha’la said. “Eric has always seen what Harper has — her potential, her gifts in this place, however shady. He sees in her the gift of being good at this job. So I think that moment is really special, because even though they’ve sort of both screwed each other as hard as they possibly can, it's very much like, ‘Touché.’”
She added, “That’s been the whole thing with Ken and me and our relationship on the show. We play sort of like mortal enemies on Industry, but we’re really dear friends. So when people are like, it feels very much like love-hate. Why? Why does it feel like love? I was like, that’s because Ken and I actually love each other.”
“I’m really curious where it’s going to go, because now they’ve both been in each other’s places,” Myha’la said of her hopes for Season 4, which is in production now. “The possibilities are endless between them, which I think is pretty cool.”
The third season is eligible for Emmy consideration this cycle, and despite its exemplary run thus far, the series has never been nominated. All episodes are available to stream on Max.