[This story contains major spoilers from season four, episode six of Industry, “Dear Henry.”]
One thing that Industry has become known for — at least among the cast — is the fact that showrunners Mickey Down and Konrad Kay don’t give out the scripts ahead of the season. That means the HBO show’s actors often find themselves as shocked as the rest of us by the writer’s decisions. When Ken Leung and Myha’la started filming season four, they had no idea what fate would befall their characters, their friendship and their nascent fund SternTao. “When I read episode six, I was like ‘damn, they killed my bro,’” says Myha’la.
In “Dear Henry,” Eric Tao’s (Leung) proverbial chickens come home to roost in a big way; just as the traders of SternTao are narrowing in on their takedown of banking app Tender and when it seems like its principles may finally get a little bit of what they want, Eric gets blackmailed out of the finance business altogether. “I literally was like, that’s crazy,” adds Myha’la, who plays Harper Stern. “And it’s so sad. We worked so hard to build this thing and now you’re just going to leave me.”
Eric’s (apparent) departure from the world of Industry marks not only the end of SternTao, but an (apparent) culmination of Leung and Myha’la’s four-year-long creative partnership. The two actors joined THR a few days before the episode aired to discuss what it all means.
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First things first: Do you know how much SternTao spends on their hotel suite “office”?
KEN LEUNG Eric says it’s $100,000 a month, but that obviously doesn’t include the laundry. But it might be hyperbole, it’s probably more like $15,000 or $20,000.
MYHA’LA If it was that much then Harper would absolutely be asking, why don’t we put this money into the fund? That’s an insane amount of money not to be investing. Like, why is he using his daughter’s trust for a hotel? ?
What is an element of Eric and Harper’s careers that you would actually want?
LEUNG When they work well together, their partnership.
MYHA’LA But I feel like you and I have that as scene partners. So I’m like — the money? If I just had the money and didn’t have to deal with the rest of the job.
When you started working on the show, did you know right away that you would click as scene partners?
LEUNG That’s a good question, and I think we did, but I don’t know that I articulated it that way. The first scene we filmed was Harper’s interview, and I had just met you [Myha’la] a couple of hours before. We met for the first time in the Bad Wolf offices; remember that bear? There were a bunch of props from other shows and there was this big stuffed bear. Lena [Dunham] was there, too, it was just the three of us.
MYHA’LA I just remember thinking, “Ken is the grown-up.” Pay attention to him. He knows some shit I don’t know, so just pay attention.
Now that you’re four seasons in and there are new cast members, do people think of you that same way?
MYHA’LA I think they definitely do. I don’t know that I am. I mean, I am technically a grown-up, and I’m seasoned on the shows. The two of us are the ones who were there from the beginning. But I don’t take myself too seriously. I like to have fun when I’m working. So I would say that I’m a fun aunt. I bring the vibes.
LEUNG I think that’s all true. She led us all into a dance one day on the balcony of Pierpoint. It was the episode that everyone was in those crazy costumes.
MYHA’LA I wasn’t even working that day. I just came in and yelled, everybody dance! And they were all like, why are you here?
When the new folks joined the show, what’s the one thing you wanted them to know about the way Industry works?
LEUNG I remind people that it’s no mistake that they are here. I remember when I started, it’s about this foreign world of finance that most of us —certainly myself —don’t know anything about. So there’s this feeling of, do I belong here? I think I speak for all of us when I say we all entered the show in this way of thinking, “what is this?”
MYHA’LA Except maybe Sagar [Radia]. He knew a thing or two.
Outside of the shock of this episode’s narrative turn, what did you feel about the decision to do this to Eric?
MYHA’LA I felt bad for both of them, I felt bad that Eric — understandably — couldn’t tell Harper what was going on. I felt bad for her because she was traumatized by the fact that she didn’t know the real reason. But of course she couldn’t know the real reason. But then it’s like duh, this is Industry and HBO, it’s got to end this way.
A show like this is never going to let you keep the nice moment.
MYHA’LA Hell, no. Every once in awhile, I catch Mickey and Kon trying to put some kumbaya shit in the show and HBO’s like, you know you can’t do this, this isn’t the show. And they’re like, damnit.
But just to pose the question: Do you think there’s a chance Eric will be better off now? Can he be fixed by leaving finance permanently?
LEUNG I think if you feel that way, then that’s right. I think it ends in such a way that any interpretation is correct. All we know is that he’s on a vaguely reckless walk, being that it’s right down the middle of a street that cars drive down. So there is a defiance to it, an, “I dare you to knock me off this street, I dare you to honk at me” type of thing. He’s also walking with purpose. But the show doesn’t tell us where he’s going or what he’s feeling.
Last season, it seemed like Rishi’s story was really over, and then he found his way back into the finance world thanks to those secret dealings with Harper. Do you think we could see Eric doing something similar?
LEUNG If the story wants him to. If it adds something. I do have a hard time imagining what that would be, if that’s what you’re asking.
Which moment from this season, between Eric and Harper, is sticking with you the most?
MYHA’LA I was really, really looking forward to filming the scene we had together where Harper tells Eric that her mother’s passed. I worked really closely with Mickey and and Konrad for a long time on that; the scene we filmed was not the scene that I originally read. I was personally really desperate for Harper to have a moment to get her actual shit off, do you know what I mean? She’s never truly vulnerable, she’s hardly ever 100 percent honest. It felt like that was earned in this moment, so I wanted to explore what happens to her when she actually is that way. Does she even understand it? Is she doing it on purpose or is it just happening to her? And I thought it was os right that it was happening with Eric. I feel very safe with Ken. And I was satisfied and exhausted at the end of the day, and still turning it all over in my mind, which I don’t usually do. I usually film something and walk away and don’t think about it anymore.
LEUNG I have to echo that. Myha’la and I are a certain way together, and then we play these characters who are so different than that. That scene was inching closer to what we have together.
How do you think Harper and Eric vote?
MYHA’LA Oh, God. Does she vote? (Laughs.) How do you even vote in America when you don’t live there? Ken is smiling so hard.
LEUNG I’m smiling because I used to have the little Trump figurine on the top of my Bloomberg monitors during the first season.
MYHA’LA Didn’t they make you take it off?
LEUNG No, what I was told is that they spent so much money erasing that from every frame.
MYHA’LA Oh, yeah. I remember now, they were like, we blew the budget just to get that shit out. But they must vote conservatively.
LEUNG Yes, my story answers that question. It’s indirect, but it’s also direct.
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Industryreleases new episodes Sundays on HBO Max.