[Editor’s note: This interview contains spoilers of the first two episodes of Industry season three.]
“I am a man and I am relentless!”
So screams Robert Spearing (Harry Lawtey), repeatedly, after being goaded into doing so by his boss, Eric (Ken Leung), who is nursing a cocaine hangover while his employee nurses something resembling a broken heart. See, that morning, Rob woke up next to the dead body of his client/sexual abuser/mother figure/lover, Nicole (Sarah Parish), and later collapsed emotionally on the floor of his Pierpoint office, his face ashen, his voice cracked — “a lost boy,” to quote Lawtey, in a hard-edged, money-driven world that simply has no time for lost boys.
Welcome to Industrya lean and mean HBO drama centered on a group of investment bankers in London. In the show’s third season — the first to air in the network’s coveted Sunday night time slot (the same as The Sopranos, The thread, Game of Thronesand Succession)—Rob is paired with Sir Henry Muck (Thrones‘ Kit Harington), a CEO who is taking his green energy company public. If that sounds like a very—lots of death, lots of drugs, lots of sex, lots of plot-that’s it. Industrycreated by Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, it moves through beats and scenarios with an intoxicating style, but still manages to say something interesting about the human condition.
The AV Club spoke to Lawtey, who will also play Harvey Dent in the upcoming Joker: Folie A Deuxon some of his character’s big moments this season first two episodes.
The AV Club: What did you think when you first read the scene of Robert waking up next to Nicole and discovering she was dead?
Harry Lawtey: It was a real shock to me, as I imagine it was to anyone watching. I think it’s a very bold and propulsive storytelling decision by Mickey and Konrad, and it’s very characteristic of them. They have this sense that they really live by burning their best ideas, which I think is very admirable. They’re not waiting to drop things until the final episode and have a full season of build-up. If they have an instinct or an impulse, they follow it and lean into it. [into a corner] to write a way out of this. They have faith that they will solve the problem that they created. And so in that sense, it was a really exciting beat. Of course, it’s the kind of agent of chaos in that episode from Robert’s perspective. It completely turns his world upside down, and he doesn’t have the self-awareness to be able to process trauma like that. It was a really exciting challenge for me, and I was thrilled to be able to try it — a little intimidated, too. But then it was a little bit of a mixed feeling because Sarah Parish, who plays Nicole, is someone that I absolutely loved working with. I think she’s an exceptional actress, and she’s had such an impact on the show in such small windows over the course of three seasons. The relationship that Nicole has with Robert is absolutely one of my favorites on the show. I think it’s so complex and nuanced and really indicative of the kind of queer connections that Mickey and Konrad are interested in. It talks about so many different themes, about abuse of power, about romance and connection and finding trust in another person — and also about consent and this male idea around consent and questioning your own masculinity.
AVC: Robert seems so confident when Nicole answers the door the night before, very different from how he did in the first season, when he was all wide-eyed and getting his bearings. But the next morning, he changes back. And it’s almost as if the show is underlining the idea that, sure, you can mature and change, but you also can’t. There’s a reason he keeps coming back to her as much as he thinks he’s figured out this kind of game he’s in.
HL: I mean, I certainly look different in the first season. It’s a pretty profound thing to have your aging captured on television. But yeah, I think what we’re trying to do is literally show different sides of the character — and I think with Robert especially, because there are certain aspects of him that he struggles to ignore or transcend or move away from. But he is who he is, and he’s kind of a lost boy on a journey of self-discovery. He’s certainly not a man yet, and that’s why he clings to figures like Nicole to try to affirm or validate his identity and his self-worth. I think that’s why her death is such a huge loss for him and shapes him so truly, because there was a love for her. But that love is rooted in a love for the person that she made him feel like he was. You know, she kind of gave him back his mojo, which was pretty dormant in season two. If I watch clips from season two or even photos, I always think I come across as a person with no confidence, which is not necessarily something I’m proud of.
Harry Lawtey and Kit Harington in season 3, episode 1 of Industry (Photo: Simon Ridgway/HBO)
AVC: Speaking of needing validation from others, I love the relationship Rob has with Kit Harington’s character Henry. You guys almost seem like brothers. He’s constantly holding what he has in front of him. What was it like working with him? And were you surprised by how, for lack of a better term, funny he was?
HL: I wasn’t surprised, but I was really impressed. You know, I really like that analogy, by the way, of brothers. No one has told me that before, but I think that’s definitely it. I’m a younger brother. Like, if I had a bag of candy, my brother used to make me give him one. He’d eat it and then he’d be like, “Oh, yeah, I thought you didn’t like those.” [Laughs] And it’s kind of a brotherly exercise of authority. And I think that relationship definitely has that. In terms of Kit, it was a joy to work with him. He’s so talented and experienced as an actor, and the fact that he had a real appetite to come and join our show, that he almost volunteered to be a part of it, was a real vote of confidence for us, who had been doing this for a while. He came in with no ego and with a real spirit of generosity and collaboration. And I found him so easy to work with. Honestly, he’s just a very generous actor, and he’s very well-rounded and very funny, as you said. And he’s funny in real life. That’s a great angle. [for him]especially for his fans. It’s a new side of him, and it shows how versatile he is. And I had a lot of fun with him on set. We were laughing constantly. We kind of developed our own little bromance.
AVC: In episode two, your characters literally fight in a children’s playroom, which is quite the metaphor, and Robert hits Henry with a cute stuffed toy. What was it like filming that scene?
HL: It was bizarre. It was like the day after I met Kit. I had known him for about 24 hours at that point. And it happened right after a really important confrontation scene, which happens chronologically in the episode, and that’s how we shot it. So we did this scene a little bit earlier, which really speaks to the larger themes of the show about these environmental CEOs and their integrity being questioned. And Rob is questioning his own support for this and being a cog in that kind of system. And then to go from that very heavy, wordy, crucial dialogue scene to this completely ridiculous, totally pathetic fight was bizarre, and we were exhausted. But crucial to a scene like that is that the character doesn’t know how pathetic it is, you know? The stakes have to be very real and vivid for these people; otherwise, nobody buys it. And I think, hopefully, if it’s funny, the fun comes from the seriousness with which they approach it. And it’s certainly much less structured than any combat scene that Kit Harington is used to, which I think is hilarious. You have Jon Snow being suffocated in a ball pit with a stuffed toy. But again, he kind of just threw himself into it, and we didn’t coordinate it very much. Of course, we wanted to make sure everyone was safe, but we wanted it to be ugly and weird and absurd. And I hope it feels that way, maybe with a slight undertone of weirdness, because it leans into a tone that is, “Oh, there’s something going on here.” That stuffed toy was in his face a little bit longer than it needed to be. And you question the limits to which all these people are being pushed.
AVC: Rob also has a big dramatic scene with Eric in episode one, when he makes Rob repeat, “I’m a man, and I’m relentless” to get him out of his meltdown. It’s an intense interaction. What was it like working on that?
HL: It was a great lesson for me. Working with Ken, genuinely, is an education. I’m going to shout this from the rooftops as loud as I can: I think he’s, like, the most underrated actor in America. He’s the closest thing I’ve ever had to working with a genius, I think. And this scene is a perfect example of that specifically. He’s kind of a Jedi, because he’s so free with the way he works. He doesn’t plan anything; he’s a genuinely impulsive, responsive actor who’s driven by the moment, which is the most true actor you can be to a certain extent. And he really lives by those principles. And so in a scene like that, he has this incredible way of making it feel like you’re setting the pace, you’re leading the scene. At the same time, he’ll throw in little notes or choices that send you in a certain direction. So you have this weird dichotomy of, “He’s kind of leading you, but also responding and listening to you.” If that moment is in any way memorable, I honestly attribute it all to him.
Stroke: Industry Moving to its new Sunday night time slot on HBO is a big deal. Does that come with any pressure?
HL: Actually, no, to be honest, it doesn’t mean that I don’t respect what it means. I absolutely do, and we’re very flattered and honored to be there. But by the time we knew that for sure, we’d already done the show. And also, there’s a little thing of, like, I live in England, and I’ve worked for HBO for many years, but I don’t have an HBO subscription. It’s not possible here. So in a way, I’m quite disconnected from it. I’m asleep when America’s watching the show. That little kind of disconnect is really helpful on a personal level, because it reminds me, crucially, that as much as we care deeply about the show, first and foremost, it’s meant to be enjoyed by the fans. When you do something — whether it’s a play or a film or a TV show — you do it in service of an audience, not to sound too altruistic. Ultimately, we put it out there. [the show] out there for people to like and care about. We hope they care about it as much as we do.
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