Ken Leung on ‘Industry,’ the finance show for everyone

Ken Leung has had an illustrious profession. Since debuting within the 1998 movie “Rush Hour,” the New York-raised actor has made a reputation for himself on packages like “The Sopranos” and “Misplaced.” Since 2020, he’s been one of many stars of “Trade,” HBO’s sequence following the high-energy, high-stress world of worldwide finance.

With the return of “Trade,” by the use of a 3rd season now streaming on HBO, Ken Leung joined The Tradition Present for a dialog with Jared Bowen about coming into the (fictional) world of enterprise, making drama tv in a drama-ridden world, and the streaming-era “race” for viewers consideration.

Leung describes his character, American-born London-based managing director Eric Tao, as a “mentor” for the youthful workers at Pierpoint & Co, significantly Harper, performed by Myha’la Herrold. Leung says that Eric and Harper “type of gravitate in the direction of one another from the get-go. We’re each folks of colour. We’re each People in London, and so we comply with that journey.”

By the top of season two, “one thing adjustments radically. And initially of [season] three, we now not see them collectively, bodily at the very least,” stated Leung. “It’s a really explosive, chaotic, unpredictable present, significantly this season, I really feel.”

The spoiler-free perception into season three by Leung reveals that the upcoming episodes will discover Eric’s private journey. “The season begins with him making associate, lastly,” Leung explains, however not with out sacrifice. “His spouse has left him, he’s developed a ingesting drawback, so he’s dealing with growing old in a younger man’s recreation. However I believe from the get-go, there’s a sense, or hopefully there’s a way, of what he will need to have gone by means of to get the place he’s as an Asian American man.”

Leung admits that he joined “Trade” with little to no expertise within the finance world. “I believe it’s honest to say that for many of us, this world [of finance] is totally international,” he says, however that didn’t essentially restrict him. “As an actor, you don’t must know finance. You don’t must be an skilled in all of finance. What it’s essential know is your stakes within the scene. […] I believe it helps, too, that everyone knows that none of us are consultants on this. So there’s this type of group mentality the place we help one another.”

The present has resonated with audiences past the finance world, as nicely. “Energy is only a human factor,” Leung says of the present’s common attraction. “There’s a lot at stake proper now. And to see totally different folks take totally different paths to energy makes energy fascinating regardless of being an age-old human impulse.”

He additionally thinks that the present itself is an train in energy.

“You may watch any variety of exhibits,” says Leung. “So there’s this race to get consideration, be related, do one thing whereas we all know we’re residing in such a consequential time. We need to be a part of that. We need to say ‘we have been right here for that, as a result of we did this.’ […] I don’t assume that’s distinctive to this time. What is exclusive is one factor on high of the opposite.”

Hearken to the complete interview above, and hearken to The Tradition Present each weekday at 2 p.m. on GBH.