‘Industry’ season 4: Myha’la talks Harper and Yasmin’s epic night out: ‘It feels like a kind of reckoning’

After three seasons climbing the financial world ladder, Harper Stern (Myha’la) finally occupies a position of power in Industry‘s fourth edition. Having started her own fund, she also uncovers massive fraud at the fintech company Tender – once again setting her on a collision course with regularfrenemy Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abela). Earlier this season – as you may recall – Yasmin’s husband Henry Muck (Kit Harrington) was brought on as Tender’s new CEO, and now he’s implicated in the company’s illegal dealings.

Season 4’s penultimate episode,”Points of Emphasis,” finds Yasmin plotting her escape from both Tender – and her marriage. She enlists Harper to help her control the narrative, timing her resignation to make it seem like she’s always been the company’s dissenting voice. At the end of the episode, the ladies meet for a drink, and openly admit that they’ve always been jealous of each other. Then they go out partying to forget their troubles for a little while.

Speaking with Gold Derby, Myha’la calls that night out “the most mature thing” the characters have done during the life of the series. “They say exactly how they feel, exactly what they need, and then give it to each other,” the California native notes. With Industry‘s endgame in sight, we spoke with Myha’la about some of the season’s big storylines and how long she wants to stay in this world.

Watch this video on YouTube

Gold Derby: Harper has always been a somewhat unknowable personality. What’s it like to create a character like that?

Myha’la: The cool thing about it is understanding what she knows about herself, as well as the things that she doesn’t know – and the choice to not reveal any of it. She’s a deeply afraid person; she’s afraid of being hurt and of being found out. In the first two seasons, she was like, “I’m sitting on a bag of lies that could get me deported.” So she’s in preservation mode most of the time until we get to the end of Season 3, where she’s no longer in a desperate need to protect herself. She’s in a place of power, and there’s a little more security, so now is when we’re starting to see where she might feel like, “I have to come clean about some things… whether I want to or not.”

I want to talk about the moment in Episode 5 after Harper loses her mom, and Eric (Ken Leung) tells her she’s undeniable. It’s such a powerful scene, and arguably the most vulnerable we’ve ever seen her.

That’s the kind of scene I had been begging for for years; not to the writers, necessarily, just as a fan of the show myself. As a Harper stan. I’m always rooting for her and I wanted this for her so badly. I knew it was coming, because there’s only so long that a person can isolate themselves and shove their feelings down. There has to be a breaking point, and I was so ready for it. I didn’t even know what it looked like to play a truly vulnerable Harper. What does Harper look like in a state of need and [emotional] nakedness? I’d never done it, so I was really excited to find out what that looks like, and how she responds to it. What I discovered is that she doesn’t really know what it looks and she’s trying to figure it out. She feels like she’s been robbed of a way to grieve around the whole thing.

Speaking of standout scenes, this episode gave Yasmin and Harper their most honest conversation yet. In a season where they’ve already grown so much, how did it feel to get to that point?

It feels like a kind of reckoning. This season, everyone has been faced with these “do or die” moments where they have no choice but to be as naked and real as they can be. Harper and Yasmin are like sisters – they’re tired of petty bull sh*t. Instead of being very avoidant, they’re kind of at a loss and exhausted by it all. They don’t even have the energy to put up a front, and they’re the only two people they can really do that with. That scene is the most honest, desperate plea for true love and care. They sort of become children [again]. They hold each other, go out dancing and have no cares in the world for just a moment. That’s the way they choose to hold each other.

Doing all the things that Lorde sings about, to quote Yasmin.

Literally!

In the season premiere, Otto (Roger Barclay) tells Harper he hired her to be “a face.” That reminded me of Season 1, when the Pierpoint bosses wanted to use her as a pawn and she said, “What do you really know about me?” How do you think Harper feels she’s perceived?

In that conversation with Otto, she’s genuinely coming to him saying, “I don’t understand.” She doesn’t think about the way she’s perceived in terms of race or gender; she’s not a feminist and that sort of stuff is a rude awakening to her. She thinks she’s coming to someone who hired her on merit – it couldn’t possibly be these other things. That’s a huge slap in the face to her because I don’t think she thinks that way. She’s trying to think the way that her peers think… she’s not girlbossing or thinking, “I’m a Black woman, and I’m going to show you how Black I am.” She’s actively trying not to think about that because it’s going to get in the way. It’s kind of s–tty, but it’s a survival tactic.

I spoke to Ken Leung recently, and he said Harper and Eric are both addicts. Do you think she’ll ever be satisfied?

That’s a good question. I mean, what does satisfaction look like? What does that even mean? I view this whole finance thing as gambling. They are addicts; they’re addicted to gambling. There’s no ceiling to that; it’s not a matter of, “I’ve won a million dollars and now I’m done.” The ceiling continues to move. So is she going to decide she’s actually not satisfied by this gambling addiction anymore, and move her focus to something else? I think she’s just going to continue to chase the high – whatever that looks like.

The world of Industry is broadening; now we’re getting into politics and all kinds of other s–t, so I think it’s very possible that she could get tired of finance. This season has opened her up; all her emotional s–t is taking more of a front seat than it has before. I don’t know if that’s something she likes or doesn’t like. Harper is one of the last characters that’s at a precipice for discovering more about what she wants, needs and enjoys.

Watch this video on YouTube

What’s been your favorite episode to watch as a viewer?

I really like watching all the episodes. There’s a significant part of the show that I’m not in, so I get to just watch my friends be great. But one of my favorite scenes is Episode 4 of Season 1 with me and Harry Lawtey. It’s a tiny montage where our characters just get high and hang out. We shot it in about 45 minutes at the end of the day, and our director was like, “Roll the cameras and do whatever.” Harry and I were improvising while they played music. It ended up being one of the best scenes in the whole episode, and something that was really memorable for all of us. I love those moments where limitations challenge us to be creative.

Speaking of Harry, some key characters have left the show during its run. Do you have any traditions for when a cast member exits?

When they know it’s their last day, everybody makes a little speech and thank the crew. But the nature of Industry is that we often don’t even know what the second half of the season looks like, let alone a following season – if we get one. So anytime anyone’s left, we didn’t know they were leaving until way later.

Are there lines from the show that stick with you? Some memorable ones this season for me are: “My trauma traumatized me” and “Can you give me six feet?”

The ones that I hold the closest to my heart are the things that Ken has said to me – and I do mean things that Ken has said to me, because we have a really close relationship. He’s been a mentor, a guide, and a dear friend, so the things that I remember the most are him saying “You’re a world-killer,” or him holding my hand and saying “You’re undeniable.” Those are the things I hold really close to my heart because they fuel me. If he’s proud of me, I know that I’m doing something right.

We don’t have word on Season 5 yet, but there’s so much buzz for the show right now. What would you like to see in a potential fifth season?

I mean, I just want to do it! I want to do the show for the rest of my life. I don’t want to be naive about a good thing, and I’ll hold on for dear life. I would go anywhere that [creators] Mickey Down and Konrad Kay wanted to take me – and I really mean that.

You also have a pretty busy year in terms of film roles. What was your experience making Dead Man’s Wire and They Will Kill You?

I’ll take any opportunity I get to praise Gus Van Sant. Getting to say that I was in a project of his is a huge accomplishment for me. He’s so nice and cool, and knows exactly what he wants, which really comes through in his work. Dead Man’s Wire is so Gus – it really has his DNA. I can’t say more about how happy I am with it. They Will Kill You is super-duper fun as well. That one is going to SXSW, and it’s just a good fun watch. I was really excited by [director] Kirill Sokolov‘s vision. It feels like being in a video game. I’m not a video game person, but if you like video games you’re really going to enjoy the way this movie was made.