Industry’s Myha’la Details Harper’s ‘Gutsy,’ Yet ‘Desperate’ Ploy, How She’s ‘Reveling’ in Power Shift With Eric
Industry’s Harper Stern may have reached a new low at the start of Season 3, but in Sunday’s episode, a budding relationship with portfolio manager Petra and an incredibly bold strategic move caused the pendulum to swing in her favor.
“Harper is very lucky,” her portrayer Myha’la tells TVLine. “Anna Gearing hires her as a desk assistant at FutureDawn, which is the paycheck that will keep her in London. So of course she’s grateful for that, but she’s also wildly depressed because her mind is not being exercised. And she’s not very good at her job either. She’s not good at keeping a diary because she doesn’t care. The second she sees an opportunity in Petra, she sees an opportunity to get out. She does what she does best and schemes her way into a new working relationship, which gives her the ability to exercise those skills and start building some more influence.”
More from TVLine
At the Swiss COP Climate Conference, her nascent partnership with Petra and their flurry of ideas fires up Harper’s initiative and bravado, as she continues to urge Petra to start a new fund.
“I think in Petra, Harper feels like she’s maybe met an equal,” the actress adds. “She’s looking at this person who is doing the thing that she wants to be doing. She sees a woman who’s living the life she wants to live and who’s sort of throwing her a rope here. There’s a moment where Harper asks herself, ‘Can I be in this business in a way that I thought was not possible? Can I have a feminist relationship with a coworker and still have all the things I want and need without the hierarchy issues? Without the silos, without the lying, the cheating, without the abuse? Can I do that?’ For a lot of the season, and with Petra, she keeps asking herself this question. ‘Is it possible to have an ethical relationship in this business?’ And does she want that? I don’t know.”
During the conference’s “Finance and the Climate Crisis” panel, Harper takes her future into her own hands when she jumps the gun and announces her and Petra’s plans to start a new fund spinning out of FutureDawn (yikes!) and inquires why Pierpoint is holding “an ideas festival in the shadow of a climate conference.” She then lets it rip that someone at Pierpoint published a hold on Lumi. Her comments send ripples throughout the crowd, and visibly shakes panelists Eric, Anna and Henry. It’s an astonishing mic drop, considering the fact that FutureDawn head Anna had no idea about Petra wanting to go solo. Plus, Petra herself was beginning to lose hope of being able to raise the necessary funding ($300 million) to launch.
Needless to say, Petra is pissed.
“I think it’s part-confidence and part-desperation,” Myha’la says about Harper’s intrepid and maybe even arrogant play, “because she starts to feel like Petra is not committed to this new relationship, so she forces Petra into starting this fund with her by going public in this way. It’s gutsy, but it’s also very desperate and it works, but she’s now forced Petra’s hands. It’s not a very trusting or collaborative place to start a working environment, but she does it because [either] she knows it’s going to work or she thinks that’s the last-ditch effort. She can’t just talk because talking is not going to fix it and she has no time.”
Harper’s ploy pays off. Just as Petra is ready to throw in the towel, a knock on the door changes everything. It’s Otto Mostyn and his $200 million investment is enough to get the ball rolling. With him in tow, Petra and Harper set up a meeting with Eric in an attempt to secure Pierpoint as their broker. Harper’s former boss is almost speechless as Harper demands he answer the phone every time she dials. “First class service… and eye contact,” she says, toying with him.
“I think she’s reveling in that,” says Myha’la. “He fired her! And with merit. He fired her because he held this secret from Day 1 and said ‘I’m not going to use this against you,’ and a whole bunch of s–t happens over two seasons. So, of course she’s loving the shift of power here. It’s mostly business-related, but when she gets the opportunity to look that man in the face and be like, ‘Man, f–k you too,’ that feels so good! Who doesn’t like that?”
Adds Ken Leung: “Harper goes from being a known entity to not only being an unknown entity, but something Eric has trouble facing metaphorically and literally. She’s become the ‘him’ that he doesn’t really take the time to reflect on. In his mind, he’s a hero, but there’s a shadow. She’s the shadow part that he doesn’t really face. I’ve pushed her so far that I’ve been able to create a new reality of what she means to me in my mind. Suddenly she’s in front of me, demanding that we work for them.”
Leung says that Harper and Eric have now morphed into nemeses in Season 3. Myha’la agrees.
“Everything we do, we’re thinking about how it’s going to affect the other person,” she says. “Like that very eerie phone call where Harper calls him and just breathes into the phone.”
The actress mentions another scene we can’t divulge just yet, but adds, “All of those moments feel really earned because every decision that these characters make feels connected to each other.”
Thoughts on Harper’s big swing in Episode 3? Let us know in the comments below.
Best of TVLine
Sign up for Tvline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
