It looks like both Harry Lawtey and his decisively less put-together on-screen counterpart, Industry‘s Robert Spearing, are getting their happy endings.
The actor opened up about the decision to depart from the slow-burning hit HBO/BBC co-production in a recent interview with the U.K.’s The Telegraph, saying that it was a thematic choice as much as it was a practical one due to scheduling issues, as previously reported by Deadline.
“Ultimately I feel like I’m in a place where I’ve said everything I had to say with a character, and I think both me and the writers felt mutually happy with where we left him,” he explained.
While the star hasn’t actually watched the show (“I don’t need to, it’s not for me,” he said), he added, “There was actually a stage direction after my final line, in my final scene of the show, which literally read: ‘On Robert – transformation complete.’ And that sat really well with me.”
Lawtey concluded, “Now I feel unmoored, but in a really good way. And ready for the next chapter.”
Written by former investment bankers Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, Industry — about a group of 20-somethings who deal with the high-pressure stakes of their prestigious London firm about as well as one could imagine — capped off its explosive third season by seeing Lawtey’s character move on to sunny California. After closing out a toxic chapter with former flame Yasmin (Marisa Abela), Robert is seen thriving once again in a new sector within Silicon Valley’s venture capitalist world.
Previously, Deadline reported that the exit from the series was the result of scheduling conflicts, which is also a factor in play, as Lawtey confirmed and Deadline exclusively reported that he will be filming a Cold War thriller, Billion Dollar Spy, opposite Russell Crowe at the time production recommences. Season 4 of the finance drama is set to begin filming in the U.K. tomorrow.
Lawtey, who has since appeared in Joker: Folie à Deux, broke out with Industry as the naive yet cocky finance grad struggling to cope with the stressors of the fictitious Pierpoint, getting further enmeshed in substance use and tangled trysts.