For the past four years, the English actress has been a linchpin of the ensemble cast ofIndustry.
Its so weird, she tellsRolling Stoneover Zoom from her London home.
Ive loved this show from the beginning.
Marisa Abela at the ‘Industry’ Season Three premiere in New York City on Aug. 5.John Nacion/Variety/Getty Images
It felt like everyone was new and trying things out.
Now its taking on a bigger space in the consciousness.
And what a season for people to finally lock in.
Such is the case with Season Three, where the stakes and stocks are sky-high.
Some characters are worried about their friends committing suicide; Yasmin is anxious about which nudes to send.
This season, she is in pure survival mode, in fight or flight.
For Abela, the fear of the future is one that she still holds close.
In fact, its the reason she almost never became an actress in the first place.
She can remember spending hours upon hours doing homework with her brother in dressing rooms while their mother rehearsed.
It was unstable growing up, she says.
It felt kind of scary to me as a kid, to not know how she was doing.
The coming-of-age story we were telling just felt so exciting.
And, to be honest, it felt like a massive, massive long shot.
She started out from a place of utter excitement.
So I became more and more attached.
And thank God I got the part.
Yasmins bread and butter for this season has remained her complex interpersonal relationships.
Who can she trust?
This tension is where Abelas skills are on full display.
Yasmin has all the makings of a shrill, calculated antagonist.
This season for Yasmin is an Olympic sprint, Abela says.
Youre just putting everything into [your goal], even if its just to survive the day.
This state of being is only heightened by Haringtons bratty, bumbling version of Muck.
He has more money, power, and blood-borne resources than any other character onscreen.
Hes also fucking horny.
Yasmin is crumbling under her feelings of powerlessness.
Haringtons Muck could have been an evil caricature.
I think it makes their kind of power play really interesting, Abela says.
The class system in the UK is something that everyone understands in a really intense way.
I think that the way that Kit decided to play Henry was genius.
Yasmin, she is being watched at any given time.
She is prey masquerading as a predator.
Its that what if.
What if I was this person?
What if someone had done that to me?
What if someone made me feel that afraid?
She just wants to stay alive.
Thats what she would want, Abela says.
The reality of the situation to her feels more about survival than it does about personal growth.
And what about Yasmins future, not just in relationships, but on the floor at Pierpoint?
When its a toss-up between those two things, Yasmin chooses survival.
