‘It has felt so bizarre’: Industry’s Harry Lawtey on coping with sudden fame

It's not that Harry Lawtey is kidding himself. He's fully aware, as we chat in a west London pub, that a giant billboard with his face plastered across it is now towering over New York City's Times Square. "A friend sent me a video of it just this morning," he says, prodding at a plate of steak and chips. "My mug, that big in Manhattan? I can't make any sense of it, so I don't think about it. It feels better for me to live as if it's not actually happening."

Lawtey has been thinking a lot like this lately, as his career and public profile have rapidly accelerated. The 27-year-old already has two critically acclaimed seasons of the HBO/BBC co-production Industry under his belt: a highly stressful, cash, cocaine and hormone-fuelled drama about a group of graduates during their first forays working at a fictional London investment bank. Lawtey plays a leading role – and its third instalment is about to hit UK screens.

There have been other parts, too: films like The Pale Blue Eyes , which starred Christian Bale; and You & Me , a three-part ITV romcom that he led. What's happening now, though, seems to be hitting different. And Lawtey isn't immune to the change.

Certainly, Industry has switched gears this year. It is already out in the US, where it bagged HBO's primetime Sunday night slot. Viewing figures are increasing and big names like Kit Harington have joined the cast. "It felt like a step up this time," he says, of the new series, "and having heavyweight actors on board is validating. I didn't realise this until after we started shooting, but Kit actually reached out to the show wanting to get involved. That's such a vote of confidence." The pair worked closely together.

Lawtey, meanwhile, is becoming a certified film star. He has a weighty part playing District Attorney Harvey Dent in Joker: Folie à Deux , alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, out this month. And there are plenty more projects in the pipeline. When discussing the work itself, Lawtey's enthusiasm flows. But each time talk returns to how he's processing these developments, how he's adapting to his success, it feels he'd simply rather pretend, while he still can, that it's not happening. "I don't think focusing on it is helpful," he says. "Don't get me wrong, it has all felt bizarre, and continues to. And I'm not a fool. I understand Joker is a big film. Trust me. I really do. I felt like a competition winner. But I genuinely haven't thought about what it means for me that much yet. I don't mean to sound blasé. If anything, I'm neurotic about it. It's a choice to not think about it. Because if I did? I'd never do anything else."

Recently, he's had little time to dwell. Lawtey only wrapped his most recent job last week, a Richard Burton biopic out next year. Lawtey plays the man himself; the cast includes British big guns Toby Jones and Lesley Manville . "I'm still reeling from that, really," he says, "the haze of it all. It's a different gig, playing a real person. All this extra baggage. A burden, yes, but a treasure trove, too."

The pub in which we're meeting was Lawtey's choice. It's a short walk from his home in Shepherd's Bush. "Returning to my place after filming is an adjustment," he says. "I've not lived there for three months. It's unusual: a long-distance profession. You're a nomad. It's exciting, but dislocating. You get used to constant re-acclimatising." It's precisely what Lawtey is doing now.

Lawtey's best mate is a musician. "I've always been a little jealous of him. Of course, it's a strife. I've seen it. But you can console yourself with music as a musician. Still play guitar in your bedroom just for you. Find that gratification. There's honesty to the craft. Whereas acting only exists if people see it. Otherwise you're just a madman talking to yourself." This new public-facing life is "a means to an end", he says. "To be an actor, have the results seen. Because as weird and baffling as it is, I love it. It's the only thing I've ever wanted."

Lawtey's parents met in Barton-upon-Humber, north Lincolnshire. Lawtey never lived there, but it's where both families remain and the town feels like home. Lawtey's father was in the military: "Joined the RAF at 18, posted to Brize Norton, an aircraft engineer." He goes on, "I was born there, so I have this secondhand northern-ness, and a working-class sensibility. A northern humour and candidness. Hopefully kindness." He is a huge supporter of Hull City. "All that, despite the fact that I was born in Oxford, one of England's more salubrious cities." A few days after Lawtey's fifth birthday, his dad was posted to Cyprus. School was on the base. "A real mix", Lawtey recalls of his classmates. "Geordies, Northern Irish, Scottish, Welsh – a training ground for mastering British regional accents. My party trick as a kid was to do them like a jukebox for my brother's mates. Our school," he continues, "was basically a small British state comp – not a lot of funding or support for drama. But Mum tells me as a kid I'd always strut into the kitchen in some costume I'd rumbled together to do shows." There's home video of Lawtey prancing around the garden in a 1997 Hull City kit fighting imaginary enemies. That was the extent of his acting until a school production of Oliver. Lawtey played the Artful Dodger and was a natural. "I was a sensitive kid," he says. "Frail and fragile. Performing allowed me to disconnect. It was emboldening. Oh yeah, I realised, this is the thing. It unlocked something for me."

After Oliver, it was clear to Lawtey's parents he had a knack for acting. "A month or so later, a touring West End cast of Oliver stopped in Cyprus for two nights." The whole family went. "The young cast were amazing. Dad had a programme and we looked at it. All the kids were from the same place: Sylvia Young Theatre School , London. Without knowing anything about it – it's not my parents' world – Dad asked if I'd like to go. He's not pushy. He's a man raised in a military tradition. It's incredible he had that initiative." Lawtey was keen. An email was sent. "They replied: auditions are in two weeks. We already had a holiday booked in London for those dates, so I went along. It was like that scene in Billy Elliot: Dad slightly bemused as kids pirouetted around." Lawtey was accepted to the school. "It was a big logistical mission. Financially tricky to make it happen. There was a scholarship and subsidies, which helped, but it was a lot."

Four weeks after that first email was sent, Lawtey started at the stage school. He spent term time with a host family in London. "It was hard to be away," he says. "I wasn't ready. But I knew at 13 I couldn't say no, even if I didn't want to go. And it changed my life, undoubtedly."

Lawtey spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday studying academic subjects. "Thursdays and Fridays were singing, dancing and acting. You automatically join the school's agency and start working." During his A-levels, his parents returned to the UK, before Lawtey was accepted to study at the prestigious Drama Centre, London. "The course is rigorous and intense," he says, "ridiculous as that sounds for an acting course. Older actors call it 'Trauma Centre'. The closest drama school to joining the military." Hours were long. "We worked 8.30am to 8.30pm. In early before, leaving way after. There's only 15 of you. You're in pain, in debt, exhausted. It makes you really want to get better. There's a purity to it, which I sometimes miss now."

Professional gigs came quickly. Lawtey skipped the last weeks of his degree having been cast in a play down in Chichester. Then Industry came along. Lawtey's character, Robert, starts out all bravado and machismo. "In those first scripts," he says, "the person I identified was quite reprehensible: arrogant, bullish, boyish, yes, with a maverick charm. But not someone immediately likable."

Industry's show runners worked closely with Lena Dunham through the pilot process. "And as we progressed through auditions, the three of them would say: be more you. It's a confusing note. It wasn't in the early scripts, but Robert's trajectory is different. More humbling. More fragile." If the first two series see Robert's swagger peeled back, in season three the unravelling continues. "From the off, I've approached each scene asking: how can I exhibit his heart? A lost boy looking for affirmation from the wrong people, in the wrong places."

There have been no shortage of challenges for Lawtey on screen. The emotional turmoil, sure, alongside the full spectrum of sex, drugs and debauchery. "I'm lucky," he says, "having started at the vanguard of intimacy coordinators. We reaped the rewards. And sex is an integral part of the show. Sometimes, though, you just have to laugh." One scene in particular springs to mind: after a client request at the bank's Christmas bash, trousers are dropped as Lawtey's character prepares for a certain white powder to be blown somewhere... unconventional. "I had to do a lot of Googling to work out how to act that one out," he says. "Every time you turn a page on Industry, there's a sense of: God, now what? It keeps you on your toes. Absurd as it sounds, though, it's work. Another day at the office, if not what I expected to be doing when I studied Chekhov."

In the summer of 2022 Lawtey received a call from his agent. "The details were sparse," he says. "Only that it was about a Joker film." Lawtey didn't expect to be in with a shot, so he "recorded a self-tape at home with a mate". A week or two later, the film's director, Todd Phillips, called a Zoom meeting. "I assumed it would be for some notes... Within five minutes he'd offered me the part." He grins. "I tried to stay calm and assured, which was a struggle."

The film was shot at the Warner Brothers lot in Los Angeles. "We filmed on the Friends stage," he says, "next to the opening credits fountain. It was surreal. It felt like a fever dream." In the run-up to shooting, Lawtey felt overwhelmed. "This was a level up, infrastructure like I've never experienced, maybe never will again, proper la-la land. I was so nervous leading up to it. Then on the morning of day one, I realised: if I couldn't let myself enjoy it, I should pack the whole acting thing in. This is as silly and exciting as it gets. I held on to that."

At drama school, Lawtey read and watched interviews with big-name actors. "They'd talk about despising watching their own work," he recalls. "It always came across to me as faux modesty. Like, you wouldn't paint a landscape then never look at it. Get over it. Now I'm one of those wankers. I don't watch Industry. It's not really for me. I've done my bit: I was there. Not watching stuff is best for me at this stage. Removing myself from even having access to an opinion is a way of sustaining my self-confidence." He seems at once excited by his career and unnerved by it. "I don't think being filmed is an ordinary human experience," he says. "It's inherently exposing."

Joker: Folie à Deux is in cinemas from 4 October. Industry airs on BBC1 and iPlayer from 1 October

Fashion editor Helen Seamons; grooming by Charlie Cullen using Kevin Murphy Haircare and Shakeup cosmetics; fashion assistant Sam Deaman; photographer's assistant John Cronin