You don’t always need to understand what the characters are saying to appreciate the brilliance of HBO’s sleeper hit Industry. Even its actors don’t always know what’s going on.
“Because finance was and is so foreign to me, I sensed that I needed to find something inside and not outside,” Industry star Ken Leung, 56, told Obsessed: The Podcast host Matt Wilstein.
Leung, who stars as Eric Tao in the British investment banking thriller, says its finance-heavy language is equally unfamiliar to him as it is to the show’s viewers.
“I’m not mimicking anybody. I’m not emulating somebody. I needed to find the place from which I can own this thing, despite it being foreign,” he added.
Before Industry, Leung starred in Lost as Miles Straume, a role that demanded equal levels of soul-searching. The actor says the experience was initially difficult, both because he had “never been away from home for that long” and because he didn’t know what to expect with “the mystery of the show.”
“It was very vague, and I was the kind of actor who felt like I needed to know things in order to play the character,” Leung said. But once he gave himself over to the show, everything changed.
“I kind of let go and just was present—tried to be at least. Then it was just a ball. I wasn’t weighed down by ‘shoulds,’ right way and wrong way of doing things," he said. “I gave all that up, and it was a dream, to be not only on the show, but there.”
On Industry, which is now in its fourth season, Leung acts from a position of authority, “calling the shots,” as he says.
“Not only was it not foreign, but however it looks, I am making it look that way,” Leung said of his character’s inner monologue. “Once I made that switch, I felt like I could do no wrong because I was calling the shots, I was making the show. Eric comes from that kind of mindset.”
“He is the master of everything. So I went from, ‘How am I gonna fit into this world?’ to ‘This world is the way it is because of me,’” he added.
Later in the interview, Leung explained why he won’t be reprising his role in the Trump-requested Rush Hour 4, which of his TV shows no one should ever watch, and why he turned down so many roles over the years.
Industry’s fourth season, which also features Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington and Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton, will air its season finale on Sunday, March 1. The show has been renewed for a fifth and final season.
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