Industry will be on every best of the year list. It has always been good, but this third season has been truly exceptional for being ambitious, daring, and always entertaining.

The best thing about Industry is that you can tell its creators, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, are fans of series. Especially of Mad Men. It is evident and undeniable (for good and with great elegance) that they love it and learned how to narrate with it. Don Draper would be proud.

One of the things where the influence of Matthew Weiner's series is most noticeable is in the construction of Harper Stern. Like Jon Hamm's character, she is a professional with an innate talent and a vision that no one else possesses, who had built a false identity as she had not graduated in the field.

And like Peggy Olson, she has a very personal relationship with her mentor (Eric), but she has surpassed him because he is a dinosaur. The best of both worlds.

Before the series premiere and after having seen the complete season, El Español had the opportunity to talk with Myha'la, the actress who plays the protagonist of Industry, in a conversation where she talked about Harper's relationship with Yasmin, how she sees the critiques of her character, or the scene that surprised her the most in this season upon reading the scripts. This is what she told us.

How did you feel about being away from Pierpoint this season?

I really missed the usual team, but I was able to work with new colleagues. Sarah Goldberg was one of them and I adore her. Working with her was perfect and very fun, plus she was a fan of the series which was a bit weird because I was a fan of her work.

It was stimulating to explore other aspects of my character and different spaces. Expanding Harper's world was very exciting, but I missed my friends a lot. I missed the stock market floor of Pierpoint, which is ironic because in the previous two seasons it was like, 'damn, let me out of here, I've been here for 16 hours and haven't seen daylight' (laughs). I'm going to miss it a lot.

What did you think of this season compared to previous ones?

This season was the most ambitious so far. The most extreme. This year, as a team we really dropped anchors and went to places we had never been before.

The same goes for Harper. In this season, she goes to places she has never been before, at first she was more dispensable and irrelevant than ever before, and towards the end quite the opposite, she was in the most influential position she had ever known.

The journey from point A to point B is new. She moves a little differently this time. She moves in a way that I think many people would not expect from her, because she makes some decisions based on personal feelings and tries to make some ethical decisions that are new for her.

What were your favorite scenes to shoot in this season?

Obviously, slapping Marisa was my favorite scene. It was a moment that didn't feel gratuitous, we had earned it. We were looking forward to shooting it since we read the script because when you have built that total, full, and blind trust in your colleagues, you know you can safely go anywhere and the scene will be spectacular, and it will be fun for you.

Actors love to act and play someone different from ourselves, and Marisa and I adore each other. We are friends, so fighting intensely was one of my favorite days, although it was also a strangely stressful day. I also had a fight scene with Harry that didn't end up in the final cut.

What scene surprised you the most when you read the scripts?

Well, literally the entire fourth episode, Richie's episode. And the final scene, when Diana is shot in the face and all that blood on the wall. I was like, 'what?'. I think Mickey and Conrad will literally do anything at this point and I find it very exciting, they know we trust them and we will do anything they write.

"Harper wouldn't risk committing a crime like the yacht one if it weren't for someone she truly cares about"

Why do you think Harper and Yasmin keep coming back to each other despite the things they have said and done?

There are some relationships like this that I suppose could be classified as toxic, where they are not necessarily good for each other, but at the same time, they cannot stay away.

I think what Harper and Yasmin most admire about each other is what they resent, what they envy because they don't have it. Both feel slightly threatened by those virtues, advantages, or whatever they believe the other has and they don't.

It's a dangerous back and forth. Both have been in vulnerable situations alongside the other, but there is always a question mark around that relationship, like they never really know what the other is thinking or if they are being totally honest.

What is clear is that they cannot cut that relationship from the root and stay away for long, because it is the only platonic relationship they have in that universe and they cling to it. Plus, they have a lot of history, they always find a way back because I think there is a strange love that maybe neither can explain.

Harper and Yasmin's relationship is the love story of the series. If not, just think that Harper wouldn't risk committing a federal crime like the yacht one if it weren't for someone she cares about deeply.

"Harper has learned by example and is doing very well"

Do you think the criticisms Harper receives from the characters and viewers are fair?

No one says Rishi is a sociopath, insensitive, or narcissistic. Nor do they say that about Eric. They criticize Harper for things that are not judged in themselves or the other, and they are equally wild and ruthless or worse.

Eric moves in the same way as she constantly does, I think Harper is a product of her environment and she is only criticized because she is young and a woman. If she acts as she does, it's because it's actively what she has been taught. She has learned by example and she is doing very well. That's what bothers them, that they created a monster that can surpass them.

*This article has been automatically translated using artificial intelligence