One of the most important additions to HBO‘s Industry in Season 4 has got to be Kiernan Shipka‘s Hayley Clay. First introduced as a hard-partying executive assistant in the Industry Season 4 cold open, she has evolved into Yasmin’s (Marisa Abela) right hand gal and an ambitious manipulator in her own right.
In Industry Season 4 Episode 6 “Dear Henry,” Hayley makes a shocking confession to Yasmin that completely reframes each and every scene we’ve watched her in so far.
**Spoilers for Industry Season 4 Episode 6 “Dear Henry,” now streaming on HBO Max**
Hayley admits to Yas that boss Whitney (Max Minghella) didn’t recruit her from the usual resumé pool. She is actually an escort. She was hired to perform sexual acts with high profile marks on camera so Whitney could exploit those around them later. (We also learn in this episode that Ken Leung‘s Eric Tao was stung by this operation; he was caught on tape with an underage sex worker.)
What this means is that Hayley was the one who seduced Yasmin and Henry (Kit Harington) and not the other way around. Their threesome was about so much more than just the fissures in the Mucks’ marriage.
DECIDER got to chat with Kiernan Shipka before Industry Season 4 came out about how much she knew about Hayley Clay’s true motives and how she crafted some of her biggest scenes this season to hit different after Episode 6’s big reveal.
DECIDER: Over the course of the season, we learn a lot about Hayley. You know, she has secrets. Some of them are very dark and twisted. I’m just very curious, at what point did Mickey and Konrad clue you in on your character’s full backstory and what she was really doing there? Because the scenes play so differently once you know what she’s actually doing.
KIERNAN SHIPKA: Yeah, I was pretty clued in. I read the first four episodes before signing on and I pretty much asked them about the entire season arc. It was important for me to know as much as I possibly could. Just to know, exactly as you were saying, if someone goes and watches the scenes back, I want it to all track and all that to make sense. So I didn’t really feel like I was figuring out too much in real time. Like, I kind of knew the game that that she was playing and I didn’t want to play in a way where I was revealing it at all. But just like for me as a performer, to know in my heart that this was where she was going was important. And they were so kind and generous with my questions because I asked a lot of them. I’m like, “Hey guys, I have another question.” They would always hop on the phone and talk about it.
One of the most jaw dropping scenes I think of the season is in Episode 3, when Yasmin sort of instructs Hayley to sleep with Sir Henry. At first it seems like Yasmin is the one in control, but as we later learn, there’s some more elements at play. What was your approach to that scene? Because when you’re watching it the first time through, Hayley seems to be the one manipulated, but then when you learn more about her, it’s not that way at all.
Yeah, it was amazing. I mean, it was so fun too know where it was going to go and to play someone who is playing someone is so exciting and fun. I felt like she was always hiding behind some kind of mask and protecting herself in some kind of way, and always sort of playing some kind of game. To go into that scene knowing what that moment was going to mean for her later, what was going to mean for all the characters in that scene later, was was cool.
I mean, I really feel like everybody in that scene is like going through a whole different journey. Everyone’s on a singular journey. I know they’re kind of all doing this thing together, but it also feels like it hits everybody at a very specific point in their character’s life and arc in the show. So it felt like a very character-driven scene on top of the physicality, which obviously is such an Industry staple. I feel like I was really checking all the “Industry boxes” this this season, but it was cool to do. I’ve seen it and on top of being so cinematic, it’s so essential to the characters and it means something different for each of them. So I just I thought it was a really interesting, interesting moment.
You mentioned the mask that she’s always wearing. I feel like the first moment where I saw the mask start to fall is in Episode 4, in the elevator scene with Yasmin. I’m still thinking about, you know, “No one gets out of this alive,” and the flash with, “Thank you, Mommy.” There’s so much happening where I think in my notes, I wrote, “Yasmin is getting flanked.” What did you make of that scene and how fun was it for you to,go from being subordinate to being the one toying with Yasmin?
So fun. I mean, it was it was kind of a relief, too, because I’d been holding my cards so close to my chest for every scene that I’d done up until that point. So to finally, like, let it out a little bit was so fun. And I had been working with Marisa on the show for a little bit by that point, so it felt like a good, earned moment.
It was also one of the scenes I auditioned with. So, when I was auditioning, they didn’t send any of the other material. So I was like, “What is the scene? What am I saying? What am I doing? What is this girl all about?” So to get to actually do it was was really fun.
Yeah, I was kind of on a little bit of a high after it. I loved that she sort of took off a mask. Not the whole mask, but definitely a part. And I think in that in that moment, it’s like everything shifted. To do that with just some words in an elevator is such a testament to the writing and the acting it felt like a fun moment for everybody.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.