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It's remarkable how Marisa Abela makes Yasmin so likable. The Industry character, by all accounts, is pretty detestable. That's not unlike many of the faces that inhabit the highly competitive trading and personal-wealth management world of Pierpoint.
While Industry is slow to catch on with the mainstream, the drama series is well into its second season with hopes for a third. There's no doubt that this would be a great thing for Marisa's growing career.
Despite Marisa having little in common with her outlandishly wealthy, narcissistic character, there is one thing the two share...
Where You Can Watch Industry
HBO Max subscribers will be able to watch Industry for free on the streamer. Basic HBO Max plans are available for $10/month or $100/year, and ad-free packages are available for $15/month or $150/year.
Marisa Abela On Yasmin's Relationship With Celeste
Given that HBO has been known to cancel shows prior to their second season, such as The Time Traveler's Wife, it was a huge win for Industry to come back. The show, which may or may not get a third season as of this writing, has been slow to catch on with fans. It has not been one of their most popular shows. But it's slowly building an audience that could take the story further.
Much of this growing success has to do with the diverse and dynamic cast of characters, namely Yasmin, played so intricately by Marisa Abela.
"Yasmin wants to go where she is valued. That’s the bottom line," Marisa told Vulture when asked about what has driven Yasmin into her role at the London investment bank, Pierpoint.
"She wants to go where she feels like she could be good at her job. I don’t think she has been very good at her job up until [the second season]."
While Yasmin is focused on dominating her role at Pierpoint, she is also entranced by Katrine De Candole's Celeste.
"[Yasmin] sees Celeste and thinks, 'I could do that. I could be that person', and is attracted to that possibility of who Yasmin could be, this fully realized version of Yasmin, which is: 'I am s*xy and successful, and I don’t have to hide any facets of who I am,'" Marisa explained.
This obsession with Celeste creates an odd and somewhat toxic feeling within Yasmin.
"At some moments, Yasmin is trying to mimic her; some moments, she’s trying to seduce her. Yasmin’s relationship to Celeste is incredibly narcissistic at its core," Marisa admitted.
But the tension and element of s*xual chemistry between Yasmin and Celeste is downright captivating. Not only for the audience but for the actors.
"Having a female mentor for Yasmin was really important, and the fact that Yasmin still manages to sexualize her is hilarious but equally Yasmin," Marisa said of her very promiscuous character.
"Part of the reason Yasmin feels comfortable around Celeste is because Celeste is clearly objectifying Yasmin, and Yasmin is very comfortable being objectified because it’s another place where she feels she holds value. They give that to each other."
How Marisa Abela Is Like Yasmin On Industry
It's safe to say that Marisa Abela, who grew up in East Sussex, England, to a part-Arab father and a Jewish mother, is quite dissimilar from her character on Industry.
Unlike Yasmin, Marisa did not come from wealth. But she does know how to move through that world authentically.
"I went to an incredibly privileged school, but I was on a scholarship and a bursary and didn’t really come from money. I learned very early on how to pretend like I knew what I was doing in those circles," Marisa told recently told Vulture.
"I must have been 11 years old, and I lived in a tiny bungalow in a village called Rottingdean. For my birthday, my best friend at the time picked me up in her chauffeured Bentley, drove me to Harrods, and her dad met us there and said, 'Pick anything you want. Happy birthday.' I was so scared and terrified. I went to the dog section, the animal section — it was near Christmas — and I picked up a dog stocking. I was like, 'I really want this for my dog.' I’m so mad at myself now when I think about it, but it was overwhelming. He was like, 'No, you can have anything.' And I was like, 'No, this is what I want.' So I went home with that, and I remember sort of saying to my mum, 'This school is going to be crazy.' She was like, 'I’ve made a terrible mistake sending you to this school.'"
Marisa didn't want to "feel like an outsider" at the school, so she quickly learned how to mimic their way of life.
"So I learned like, 'Okay, how do they dress? What do they like to talk about?' It’s been so important to me in my adolescent life to feel comfortable in those spaces. Now I go up for parts like this quite often. It’s so fun to play these women. They dress amazingly. They have incredible houses. I get all of that fun stuff. But I think it takes an outsider to see how vulnerable Yasmin’s privilege makes her."
Despite this, Marisa really wants her character to start acting professionally and eat a bit of "humble pie".
"Just enough so that she can be sweet. I think there is a sweetness in her. We’ve seen it before. She’s decided that sweetness doesn’t help her, so she’s got rid of it completely. I don’t think she needs to do that. I think she can bring a little bit of that vulnerability back. She needs to be knocked down one peg and then work her way back up again."
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