THE FIRST LOCKDOWN was dominated by Normal People, and an almost unhealthy national obsession with Paul Mescal. The second, then, belonged to BBC drama Industry – and its star Harry Lawtey has taken the crown as social media’s latest obsession.
The show, about a group of graduates starting out at a cut-throat investment bank in the City, has made waves, thanks in part to its unfettered sex scenes and demonstrative drug use. Most of this involves Robert Spearing, played by 24-year-old Harry – no mean task for
an actor in his first major role. ‘I have definitely never done anything like that before – and I definitely got put through it!’ he says, but adds that it was important to the show’s writers, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, themselves former bankers, that anything that features in the show
feels authentic rather than performative. Harry says, ‘We’re living in a different kind of television landscape now, where people are more comfortable to have their boundaries pushed and to see new kinds of content on screen. All the things that occur in the show, they feel well-placed, justified and they have a reason. The writers had a real strong intent that there shouldn’t be a sex scene in the show that doesn’t develop a character, that doesn’t tell you something about the power dynamics between characters and what they want from the other person and what they’re trying to get and to give away.’
READ MORE: Everything You Need To Know About Industry's Harry Lawtey
Within the eight episodes of the first series, Harry – as Robert – has a failed threesome, tastes his own semen and takes enough drugs to sink a ship. He says that it was a ‘challenge’, but that it also forced him to be comfortable in his own body. ‘You just have to remember that you’re telling a story, and it’s not you.’ This is a mantra that might have been helpful for Harry’s family to tell themselves: he jokes he really has to force himself not to imagine them watching his more risqué scenes, though adds that they are all ‘massively proud and supportive’. Born in Oxford and raised in Cyprus, Harry went to Sylvia Young Theatre School and then Drama Centre London. Small parts in ITV’s Marcella and Netflix’s The Letter For The King followed, but it was while performing in a play in London that his break really came, when the casting director for Industry came to see him. After that he, along with castmates Marisa Abela, Myha’la Herrold, David Jonsson, Freya Mavor and Will Tudor, decamped to Cardiff for six months to film the show, along with Girls creator Lena Dunham, who directed episode one. ‘We were all living in the same apartment block and we struck up a really strong bond,’ says Harry. ‘We did everything together and just had a great time.’ While they haven’t been able to get together since Covid-19 hit, Harry says they have a WhatsApp group and do Zoom calls.
This month’s news that the show had been confirmed for a second series was a relief for Harry, who says he has been ‘desperate to work and be creative’ this year and, first and foremost, ‘just be around other people’.
As for his newfound heart-throb status, Harry is nonplussed. ‘I’m just sitting around in my trackies like everyone else!’
‘Industry’ is on BBC iPlayer now