For a show ostensibly about the London investment banking scene, "Industry" sure features a lot of sex. Like, a lot of sex.
The HBO drama's trademark steaminess is back in full force during its sophomore outing premiering Monday. If that sort of thing isn't your bag, there's also still plenty of drama surrounding the business and personal dealings of the folks at Pierpoint & Co. to latch onto as well.
Last week, the Post-Gazette caught up with "Industry" star Myha'la Herrold to talk about everything Season 2 has to offer fans both old and new. For her, the show's more risque tendencies are important in helping to illustrate the Pierpoint gang's depravity in just about every aspect of their lives.
"I find the show to be horny on all fronts," Herrold told the PG. "On the sexual front, on the business front, on the mental health front. It's giving horny all around, and I appreciate that it's well-rounded. I think the integrity of the show is that it goes all in on all aspects, sex included."
Season 1 of "Industry" ended with Herrold's Harper Stern in an odd place in terms of her relationships with both mentor Eric Tao (Ken Leung) and formerly close pal Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abela). The new season picks up with Harper isolated from her friends and coworkers due to COVID-19 anxiety and grappling with how she can prove her worth at Pierpoint.
Yes, the world of "Industry" has also experienced the same pandemic we have all been living under since March 2020. Herrold said that it was a natural decision by showrunners Mickey Down and Konrad Kay to include the pandemic in season two of "Industry" because of how the show "does its best to parallel reality." That creative sensibility extended to "Industry" referencing quite a few actual financial-market stories that occurred over the last two-plus years.
Herrold told the PG last year that Season 1 of "Industry" brought out a combination of culture shock and imposter syndrome in her because it was her first time leading anything as prestigious as an HBO series. She was able to go into Season 2 with eight prior episodes of proof that she is, in fact, able to play Harper well and the confidence of knowing that there is already a built-in audience this time around.
With Season 2, Herrold felt like she had the freedom to really dig into how Harper would react to a global pandemic, some family-induced stress and gaining more responsibilities at Pierpoint.
"In the first season, there was a lot of this steely exterior," she said. "I'm presenting this one way to keep people from seeing how afraid I am. We saw those cracks a little bit in the first season. In the second season when we meet her, she's kind of defeated, having to go back into the office. She's scared to do that. Previously, she might have acted like she wasn't afraid.
"This time, she goes in kind of hoping, maybe if I turn a leaf people will be nice. Then she realizes she's at Pierpoint and it all goes to s—, as it should."
As Herrold put it, most of the show's core characters — Harper, Yasmin, Eric, Robert Spearing (Harry Lawtey) and Gus Sackey (David Jonsson) — "delve off into their own personal storylines" during Season 2 of "Industry." It was just as exciting for her to learn more about all of them as she hopes it will be for viewers.
Where Harper stands with both Eric and Yasmin drives a lot of what ends up going down this season. Herrold said she and Abela are good friends, which allows them to feel comfortable when the cameras start rolling "whether we're screaming at each other or crying laughing." The same goes for her and Leung, and Herrold had a lot of fun playing out the 180 in their student-mentor dynamic.
"We're really close as human beings, so it's really safe," she said. "We can go to the strangest, most cringe-worthy places with each other and make new discoveries that allow the relationship to be layered and interesting. Watching the biggest dog, the OG crumble is always satisfying."
When "Industry" first premiered in late 2020, it drew comparisons to "Succession," HBO's other drama about the unfathomably rich and their efforts to stay that way. There's a moment in Season 2 of "Industry" that implies those two shows may share an even more similar space than audiences were initially led to believe. Herrold considers them "third cousins" with each other and sees no reason why they shouldn't "exist in the same universe."
