She’s come a long way, as they say.
When we first met Yasmin (Marisa Abela) on Industry, she was a wide-eyed novice on the trading desk at Pierpoint, eager to prove herself. By the end of Season 4, there’s nothing innocent about her. She’s turned her husband into the police, throwing a dinner party with Nazis, and running her own business pairing young women with older, rich male clients (paging Ghislane Maxwell). Her BFF (that last “F” now stands for frenemy) Harper (Myha’la) is justifiably horrified, but Yasmin seemingly has no remorse.
Which sets her up for a wild fifth and final season. In a conversation with Gold Derby (watch the video above), Abela says she’s sad to see where Yasmin has landed, but trusts the show’s creators, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, who’ve taken her and the rest of the cast on this incredible roller-coaster ride — and she hopes the audience trusts them, too.
Gold Derby: Could you ever imagine Yasmin being where she is right now when you started the show?
Marisa Abela: No, I don’t think I could. I think that her evolution is something that, as an actor, I’m incredibly proud of. She’s been such a massive part of my life for so long, so it’s kind of crazy. I could never have predicted that we would end up in this place. It’s both an amazing challenge and kind of sad.
Why does it make you sad? Because of who she’s become?
Yasmin has turned into someone that is completely out of my range of understanding from the beginning of the season. The thing that I was most excited to start at the beginning of the series, the thing that I was most excited to play about Yasmin in Season 1, was her vulnerability and her naivete. She was this young woman who wanted so desperately for everyone to love her and to accept her. But that was really coming from a place of, I don’t want to say weakness, but intense vulnerability. And now she operates from a place of calculated strength. She’s quite powerful now. She’s evolved into something completely new. But that’s what’s so brilliant about television.
How do you, as an actor, find your way into that?
I think it has happened incrementally over four seasons. Although the difference between Yasmin Season 4 and Season 1 is so stark, you can chart those major moments of shift — whether it is, even at the end of Season 1, the final argument that Yasmin has with Harper, to Season 2, where she stands up for herself with Kenny for the first time, standing up to her father for the first time. Season 3 I think we see the most escalated shift. All of the stuff that happens on the boat with her dad, she has to grow up very, very quickly. So as an actor, how did I tap into that change? I guess the answer is the circumstances written out for me by [showrunners] Mickey and Konrad, who paved a really clear way. Yasmin says out loud, “I just want to be necessary over and over again this season. I just want to be loved. I want to be necessary.” However, the circumstances have changed so dramatically each season. Her kind of tactics for being at the center of everyone’s universe and center of people’s attention get more and more dramatic, intense, fallible, and wrong.
When did you find out where she was going to be heading? Did you know all season long?
I knew there was a dark storyline to do with the manipulation of a younger female colleague, but I didn’t necessarily know exactly what that would look like. I didn’t understand the scale of the dinner party scene, how much she would be in charge of this thing. I think that that was good because I wasn’t playing towards that. Yasmin kind of stumbles down this hill. There’s a scene at the very beginning of Episode 7 when she’s having an argument with Henry in their bedroom and she says, “How can you be caring about money right now? We’re about to lose everything.” And he says, “No one’s ever cared about you. No one cares about how you’re going to look at the end of this.” And she gets incredibly scared. I think from then, Yasmin’s looking for a way out, no matter how terrifying that might have seemed to her abstractly. So in that scene at the bar with Harper, when Harper asks Yasmin, “Why do you think that is? Why do you want to be necessary so badly?” And she says, “I guess I grew up at someone else’s mercy,” and she breaks down. I guess that is maybe my last plea to the audience to come on this journey with me to understand where that motivation is coming from for Yasmin.
And do you think the audience comes along with you?
No. No, I don’t, but I think it’s my job to create as compelling a narrative as possible to an audience. I’m not trying to win anyone over, but what I have to do is as an actor is help people understand what it is that she’s going through. So, at the very least, I hope that people understand why Yasmin has ended up in this position. And it’s kind of 50-50.
She seems motivated by self-protection. Will she give up anyone to save herself?
I think that everything she does is for her own gain, survival. I would love to see there be a character that puts that into question for her. I think it would have to be a man. I think that we’ve seen what is the most kind of selfless relationship in the show between these two women, between Harper and Yasmin. And I think that there is always something that Harper is not able to provide for Yasmin, which is that kind of intimate validation that she would get from a partner. So what does the man look like for Yasmin that would make her say, “You know what? I can maybe act in a slightly less defensive animal-type way.” But as of right now, no, I don’t think that person really exists. Therefore I don’t know what happiness fully looks like for Yasmin as well. Is she going to be happy in this kind of gilded cage that she’s creating for herself at the end of Season 4? Probably not. Maybe it would have been Robert, but I don’t tthink so.
Do you think she truly loved Henry (Kit Harington)?
In the kind of way that we all think about love, in its selfless, pure altruistic way? No, I don’t think so. But I don’t think that has ever really existed for Yasmin. I think that a sober Henry with his head on his shoulders, I think she would have tried to make that relationship work, and I think she would have loved being a part of that relationship.
Talk about her relationship with Harper. Are they friends? Are they enemies? How do you conceive of it when you approach those scenes?
I think that they’re like sisters. I think that there’s a lot of love there. I think that they are closer to friends than enemies. I think there’s a lot of competitiveness. They understand each other very deeply. They trust each other with the big things and not with the little things at all. I don’t think they trust that the other has their best interests at heart, especially professionally. I don’t think that Yasmin thinks that Harper has any respect for her whatsoever. Having said that, I think that there’s a deep honesty there. And there’s a deep connection, and they understand one another better than anyone else in this world does. Myha’la was the only person I didn’t chemistry read with when I was auditioning to play Yasmin, but we have this kind of undeniable, connection on the screen, and people love watching those scenes, whether they are good or bad — those scenes where we’re sitting at a bar together. I think that those scenes encapsulate our relationship the most, both the high and the coming together in these very vulnerable moments. Mickey and Conrad have written two incredibly rich, incredibly nuanced film female characters and their relationship that feels just as nuanced.
What is it about Mickey and Konrad that makes them such good writers of women? The relationship between Yasmin and Harper never devolved into catfights.
I think that it’s a genuine respect for Myha’la and me. I think that they really, really respect me and Myha’la as artists, and they would not degrade us. They want to give us things that stretch us and challenge us and show an audience what a female friendship is. And they are not concerned as to whether or not these female characters are likable enough or relatable enough. So often you can’t raise your voice or say something crass or behave in a kind of quote unquote bad way because women, female characters are so much harder to forgive, seemingly to an audience. I just don’t have that issue. And it’s so freeing and it’s so wonderful to play, and they match that in directing. Kit and I had a fantastic argument scene in Episode 2 where Yasmin’s telling him to go downstairs and face his audience, not only did they write that scene really amazing dialogue, but they designed as directors that they wanted to film it in one take because they wanted the audience to feel that energy and the intensity of that argument throughout. So both as writers and directors, they really have faith in us. And it’s so incredibly freeing and also challenging in the right ways.
It feels like this season really exploded in terms of the show’s popularity. What was that about this season that you think really resonated with audiences?
I think that people started to kind of trickle in in Season 3, and Season 3 really laid the groundwork for an incredibly explosive season. The characters have higher stakes. These aren’t graduates who are hoping to keep their job. These are people with power trying to maintain a marriage, maintain being in charge of an entire company. The stakes are much higher. What this season was trying to deal with is when you are given that power or when you are in that proximity to power, how does it corrupt? And the corruption of power is an incredibly prevalent and relevant topic today. And that’s Yasmin exploiting her relationship with a younger female colleague or exploiting her own sexuality or other people’s sexuality for her own gain. I’ve lived with Yasmin now for six years. She’s finally at the breaking point. What does that look like? We’re asking audiences to come with us on an incredibly difficult emotional journey. I’m still not sure how I feel about it.
You’ve got one season left. What do you want to see it for her?
I would love to see a humbling, a personal humbling. I would love Yasmin come to a place where she is working in a less selfish position. I think that she would find happiness in that. I would love to see Yasmin go for something that she wants that doesn’t feel bad or toxic. That’s what I would really love to see. I also love being challenged and exploring the dark, difficult sides of human nature. So we’ll just see what Mickey and Konrad have in store.
And you think she and Harper will end up as friends?
I would hope so. I hope that they end up where they are going to get some happiness. I would like to think that they are in each other’s lives in some way.
