Max Minghella on Playing the Big Bad of ‘Industry’ Season 4: “I Would Almost Black Out Shooting the Show”

SPOILER ALERT: The following story contains plot details from “Points of Emphasis,” Season 4, Episode 7 of “Industry,” now streaming on HBO Max. Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella) is in the wind. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Harper Stern (Myha’la) and her fellow short sellers, Whitney’s fraudulent financial startup Tender has collapsed in on itself, […] Home TV News Feb 22, 2026 7:00pm PT Max Minghella on Playing the Big Bad of ‘Industry’ Season 4: “I Would Almost Black Out Shooting the Show” By Alison Herman Plus Icon Alison Herman TV Critic aherman2006 Latest Netflix Animated Comedy ‘Strip Law’ Is a Joke-Dense Love Letter to Las Vegas Lunacy: TV Review 3 days ago The ‘Scrubs’ Revival Is Millennial Cringe: TV Review 4 days ago HBO’s Josh Safdie-Produced Docuseries ‘Neighbors’ Is Nextdoor Brought to Life by Way of ‘Uncut Gems’: TV Review 1 week ago See All Courtesy of HBO SPOILER ALERT: The following story contains plot details from “Points of Emphasis,” Season 4, Episode 7 of “Industry,” now streaming on HBO Max. Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella) is in the wind. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Harper Stern (Myha’la) and her fellow short sellers, Whitney’s fraudulent financial startup Tender has collapsed in on itself, leaving puppet CEO Henry Muck (Kit Harington) holding the bag. (Whitney and Harper had previously hooked up in an encounter that revealed his preference for, uh, penetrating interactions.) But before Whitney skips town, leaving his phone behind in an ominous sign of total abandonment, he tries one last audacious play: acquiring Pierpoint, the bank where HBO drama “Industry” — created by former bankers Mickey Down and Konrad Kay — first established itself before the entire institution collapsed in Season 3. Whitney co-founded Tender with his Stanford buddy Jonah (Kal Penn), whom he pushed out of the company in the Season 4 premiere. Ever since, the entrepreneur has been on a mission to fake it until he makes it, covering the company’s fraudulent balance sheet with inflated acquisitions in Africa and attempting to pivot a payment processor for pornography sites into a mainstream bank. Taking a run at Pierpoint is one last, desperate attempt at distraction from increasingly loud calls for an audit, and Whitney sells the hell out of it. “We want speed. We want scale. We want certainty. We want America,” he tells a room of rapt shareholders. It’s almost enough to convince them, and us, that Tender can survive through sheer bravado. But in the end, Whitney can’t escape his fate, at least while staying in the spotlight. He may put on a brave face, but behind the scenes, he’s being threatened by faceless Russian backers via his deputy Ferdinand (Nico Rogner), who tries to tell him running isn’t an option. Whitney chooses to risk it anyway, abandoning both Tender and his obvious infatuation with the aristocratic Henry. The mix of aspirational invention and forbidden same-sex attraction puts Whitney in the same lineage as other fictional antiheroes like Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley — which is fitting, because Minghella’s late father Anthony directed the 1999 adaptation of “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” Minghella arrived on “Industry” as a newly minted fan of the show, after nearly a decade on “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a radically different (though in some ways, equally dystopian) series. Minghella has the perfect background for a story populated by American strivers — including Whitney, Harper and Harper’s mentor Eric Tao (Ken Leung) — trying to make it in the London financial scene. A native Londoner who now lives in the States, where he spoke to Variety about his time on “Industry” from his home, Minghella has spent time on both sides of the Atlantic. He applied that perspective to a performance he characterizes as spontaneous and ambiguous in a conversation that touches on Minghella’s inspiration, technique and approach to playing a fundamentally mysterious character. Courtesy of HBO You’ve said you weren’t familiar with the show before you became involved with it, but once you did become acquainted, what made you excited to enter this world? I knew a lot about the show, because truly all of my closest friends — people whose taste I trust — it’s their favorite show. They had, like, a weekly screening of the show, and they watched together, and they loved it. I felt intimidated by that, that people I cared about were invested in it. I was also conscious of the fact that the season was going to be quite different. I view it almost like a reboot of the show in a way, so I felt tremendous responsibility. But Mickey and Konrad, from reading the scripts and then watching the series and talking to them, I truly thought I was interacting with generational talents. They’re amazing, and they’re operating at such a high level, and the writing was so to my taste. I’ve since learned, having worked with them, that we really do share very specifically the same taste, and it’s a joy when you get to work with people who share your taste. It&