President Donald Trump was almost featured prominently in an episode of HBO’s intense finance drama Industry—until the network edited it out.
Stars Ken Leung and Myha’la Herrold told The Hollywood Reporter that they interpreted their characters to be Republican voters, which led Leung to sneak in a little nod to Trump.
“I used to have the little Trump figurine on the top of my Bloomberg monitors during the first season,” Leung said after the actors were asked how they think their characters would vote in America. The two play Americans abroad, fighting their way tooth and nail through Britain’s cutthroat finance industry.
“Oh, God. Does she vote?” Herrold said of her straight-lipped character, Harper Stern. “How do you even vote in America when you don’t live there? Ken is smiling so hard,” she said, as Leung explained why fans didn’t see the Trump figurine he slipped into the frame during Season 1. “Didn’t they make you take it off?” asked Herrold.
“No, what I was told is that they spent so much money erasing that from every frame,” Leung revealed. “Oh, yeah. I remember now, they were like, we blew the budget just to get that s--t out,” Herrold recalled.
The Daily Beast has reached out to HBO for comment.
She seemed to think that the figurine made sense for their characters when she added, “But they must vote conservatively.”
Leung said the show makes it pretty clear to fans how their characters would operate politically. “Yes, my story answers that question,” he explained. “It’s indirect, but it’s also direct.”
Industry’s fourth season opened to higher premiere viewership than Season 3 and strong reviews, with critics praising it as ‘top-tier television.’” The eight-episode season premiered on January 11 and is scheduled to conclude on March 1.
