HARPER STERN IS a winner. Industry is rarely a zero-sum game, but of all the fates in the show’s season 3 finale, the series’s de-facto lead comes out having seemingly achieved everything she could have wanted. Entering into a partnership with the shadowy Otto Mostyn (Roger Barclay), Harper is now poised to take an even bigger step forward in her career—she’ll run her own fund with his backing. In a season full of sea changes, Harper’s weathered the storm accordingly. Not only that, but Harper has the whole world in front of her, hinting at a return to New York after years away. Considering the fates of some of the show’s other characters, she emerges from the finale smelling like roses.
While Harper has been the series lead in prior seasons, Industry expanded its canvas this year to become more of an ensemble show, building out more and more interesting characters with lots of depth. The finale, however, spends a lot of time digging into Harper’s mindset as she struggles to branch out on her own. As she states, she’s been on her own for a long time, so perhaps the idea of having support is a good one. But, at the end of the day, it’s an offer she simply can’t refuse—even if there’s something slightly menacing lingering behind Mostyn’s final exchange with her.
At the center of it all is Myha’la, who continues to infuse Harper with such complexity. It’s hard sometimes to know exactly what she’s thinking, but that makes revisiting these episodes so rewarding and engaging. In the wake of the season 3 finale, Men’s Health sat down with Myha’la to talk through some of the biggest inflection points of the episode and her arc, including why stepping into business with Mostyn may come back to haunt her, being on set for a pivotal conversation with Ken Leung, if Harper can repair her relationship with Yasmin (Marisa Abela), and much more.
MEN’S HEALTH: When Otto reveals his master plan to Harper, what’s going through her head ?
MYHA’LA: Obviously, it’s a good idea. That’s something Harper would jump on in a second in this scenario. However, the thing she’s really grappling with is, ‘Am I going to betray Petra (Sarah Goldberg), and ruin a potentially good, safe thing after I’ve insisted I was going to be a good business partner, treat her with respect, and as a true partnership?’ She’s deciding whether or not she wants to stay with Petra, find morality in this business, and stay safe—or, ‘Do I take [a] risk and chase my dreams?’
Myha’la and Sarah Goldberg in Industry season 3.
MH: Do you think the aftermath of Harper’s last interaction with Yasmin has her feeling like she’s lost someone, and that increases a desire to foster a relationship with Petra?
M: I don’t think she views those relationships as congruent in any way. Petra’s relationship is business. Her relationship with Yasmin has never been business. But, I think the situation with Yasmin makes Harper more vulnerable and more susceptible to sentimentality—which is what you might call it if you’re a serious financier who is pessimistic, and believes there’s no room for things like morality, ethics, loyalties, or any of that in finance. Which, I think Harper believes is how the system works.
She’s fighting against that because she wants to be a good friend, but she’s also like, ‘This is business.’ The situation with Yasmin has made her more vulnerable and a bit more cutthroat, because she’s like, ‘See, these two things don’t work.’
MH: On the subject of being cutthroat, later in the episode, we see this moment when it feels like a bit of payback against Rishi. How calculated do you think Harper is in that moment? Do you think she has a grand plan for these things, or is it more circumstantial?
M: Hmm. I mean, it’s got to be planned enough. I don’t know. Actually, I didn’t consider whether or not it had been a grand plan. I don’t think it was. An opportunity presented itself. I think, genuinely, Harper considered taking him on because he’s a good trader, but he’s also a fucking dick. He was horrible to her, and they have a lot of beef.
Harper’s not entirely soulless. That was partly for her own gratification, but also, she respects Sweetpea’s hustle, and she’s gonna bring her on. So she’s like, ‘Okay, you wanna witness this man being embarrassed?’
MH: How important is it for you to portray Harper with this complex, ruthless morality?
M: It’s always quintessential to create complexities in characters. People say this about Harper just because there’s an underestimation of what Black women will be or do on screen. It’s so important that it’s not something I’m thinking about actively. This is how I develop human beings when I play them, because we are naturally multifaceted and complex. We hold contradictions, and even in our moralities, some shit is conditional. I think it’s only right to do justice to making a character feel real. To let those complexities, dichotomies, contradictions, and the multitudes that we are as human beings exist is essential to me. That’s just how I work. Otherwise, it makes no sense. Or I think it’s boring, or it doesn’t seem real.
Myha’la in the Industry season 3 finale.
MH: At what point do you think Harper decided she was ready to go back to New York?
M: When she realizes she has this opportunity with Otto. She clearly feels the most confident she’s felt since we’ve known her, so much so that she can come and threaten this man into creating a business with her. But I think she feels like London is played out, and now she’s got all this courage from what she’s just done. She’s got Otto behind her, someone who she’s decided she’s aligning her business practices, theories, and views with. She feels emboldened, that she could conquer the world. She’s lost her relationships—there’s no fear in whatever she’s been afraid of at home. That doesn’t exist anymore, because she clearly feels invincible in that moment.
MH: What do you think Industry’s version of New York may look like?
M: God, I don’t know. I have no idea. What is [Industry creators Konrad Kay and Mickey Down]’s New York? Whatever version of New York that they understand is not the version of New York that I know [LAUGHS]. I actually cannot tell you. Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s gonna be fucking awesome—or would be awesome.
MH: In that moment with Otto, he talks about living in a world without fear. Do you think Harper’s fully processed what that means?
M: She’s just arrogant enough in that moment to be like, ‘Shut up.’ [LAUGHS]. Like, ‘Whatever. What do I have to be afraid of? I’ve done this and that.’ I think she’s taking that as him being like, ‘Don’t get too big for your britches,’ and she’s like, ‘I’m grown. I’m forcing you into this relationship; you’re agreeing with me, and that’s just how it is.’ She’s actually just being arrogant and not listening to him—which she probably should.
Myha’la in the Industry season 3 finale.
MH: During the episode’s aftermath section, we get a pair of moments: one between Harper and Yasmin, and then one between Harper and Eric. How much of that phone conversation with Yasmin is rooted in Harper wanting to find a way to reconcile? Or does she just want to fish for information?
M: That phone call, for both of them, is confirmation that there is nothing the two of them could say, or do, or go through together, that would dissolve their bond. They’re both fucked up, and they see each other as deeply fucked. There’s comfort in knowing that there’s someone else in the world who gets you. They’ve been through a singular thing that only the two of them experienced; they can only relate to each other on it, and the fallout is completely unique to them.
And after all that’s played out—physical violence!—to call and be like, ‘Are you going to come to my wedding? For whatever reason [it is], like, come’ is, in some ways, their way of apologizing to each other [laughs]. ‘I’m so sorry for hitting you across the face.’ ‘Me too. Of course, I’ll come to your wedding.’ Obviously she would go either way, but she’ll go under the pretense that she’s fishing. And she will totally fish.
MH: On the Eric side of things, it feels like there’s some level of him that may be proud of her. Do you believe that to be true?
M: Totally. Similarly to her conversation with Yasmin, that conversation is a whole lot of them not saying stuff that they wish they could say. I always thought of that conversation as the head nod. Real recognize real. You played the game; I played the game. You won. Congratulations. [But] in a bizarre way.
Also, there’s a moment where it feels like something vulnerable could be said, and then they just miss each other. I don’t know if it’s intentional that they miss each other, or they just don’t understand that’s what that moment was giving.
MH: That moment on the bridge is such an inversion of how last season ended. Instead of being in this closed office space suffering a loss, you’re in this huge open area, alone. Do you view that as a victory? Do you feel like she has become the person she aspired to be, or wanted to be in that moment?
M: Well, the work is never done. I think she understands that more than anyone, because her goals have literally never changed. Harper’s always been like, ‘I want to be the best in the room.’ If the room keeps getting bigger, there’s more to be done, more world to be conquered. So, I mean, filming it was incredibly lonely, but that doesn’t mean she’s not at the top. Now the world is opened up to her. She feels like she’s got the entirety of London in the palm of her hand. But she is totally alone.
Myha’la was reading her lines to Ken Leung while filming their phone call scene in the Industry season 3 finale.
MH: What was your experience filming that? Did you and Ken do that over the phone? Was he there in person to read at all?
M: I didn’t have Ken, but I read for his side. It was his last day of filming on the shoot, and all of us were available, so we all went to watch his last scene. The throwing of the bat was going to be cool to watch as well, so we all went to watch him. They start doing the scene, and I was like, ‘Wait a minute, I’m in this. Do you want me to read for you?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, for sure.’
I was behind the camera, saying the lines and stuff. That was really nice. I was so happy that, coincidentally, I was available and decided to be there to do that last scene with him. I do think it makes all the difference. Sometimes it’s a pain in the ass to be on the phone with someone, but it does make a difference—especially in that. It was sentimental [that] we were present anyway, so I was happy to be there to do it with him and to hear his side of it, because I’d done it without him. Of course, I can guess how he would play it, but it was nice to hear it.
MH: There’s this throughline throughout the season—whether it’s the “relentless” moment at the very beginning with Eric and Rob, the conversation that Rishi has with Diana, and then even a part of the conversation that Norton has with Yasmin—around this idea of masculinity. What do you think the show is trying to say about masculinity?
M: I speak for myself when I say I’m not ever making this show with the intention of telling the audience how I, or how we, should feel about something. But what I’ve learned about the business is that it’s a masculine environment. It doesn’t just mean it’s full of men, but the idea that it’s “every man for himself,” “the strongest wins the race,” and “survival of the fittest.” There’s a lot of quotable, masculine-forward things about the show. Because the environment is naturally masculine—and maybe it’s also because it’s overwhelmingly made up of men—but it then informs you about femininity in the environment as well. Can it truly survive?
Like Kenny, early on in the season. The second he embraces any softness, vulnerability, or thoughtfulness, he gets the ax. He becomes an a very easy target, and the first one to go. It shows the picture of how this place functions in masculinity, then informs how and why femininity can’t survive in the environment, and why it’s so much more difficult for women, or maybe queer people, or people in recovery, or whatever it might be.
This interview has been edited for content and clarity.
