One of the biggest additions to industry Season 3 follows a new graduate of Pierpoint named Sweetpea Golightly (Miriam Petche). We first meet the ridiculously named character when Yasmin (Marisa Abela) arrives at the office early enough to see Sweetpea in the middle of filming a TikTok for her many. many Followers. Sweetpea’s desk in the trading floor is even equipped with a ring light for video calls in perfect quality.
However, since these are HBO’s industrySweetpea Golightley is far more than just a Generation Z cliché. In just one episode, she establishes herself as determined, smart, cheeky and self-confident. And as industry Season 3 continues and Sweetpea quietly asserts herself as the smartest person in the room – most of the time.
So where industry The two co-creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay came up with such an incredible character? Obviously a great inspiration for industryThe newest graduate came from …Love Island?
“I don’t want to say she was the inspiration for the character, but people like Molly-Mae Hague have a really, really intense work ethic and drive that almost goes to Thatcher’s level of shamelessness in terms of wanting to make money,” Mickey Down said. “That’s something that Generation Z has over Millennials. They’re not ashamed to say they want to be successful.”
“For someone in the financial ecosystem, this makes perfect sense to us. It’s almost like an ’80s model of what it’s like to be in one of these places.
When the shamelessly ambitious actors of Love Island inspired the mood of industry‘s newest graduate, her name — Sweet pea – came from a completely different British television show.
“Sweetpea, her name was just a reference to Black Adder”, said Konrad Kay. “Because, you know, there’s Captain Darling in there. So when you hear someone say Sweetpea in a serious tone or when someone angrily uses her name, it’s immediately funny.”
In just the industry In the season three premiere, we hear both Yasmin and Eric (Ken Leung) growl Ms. Golightly’s first name, and it’s honestly hilarious how absurd it sounds.
Down also explained that they had hoped that Sweetpea, like all of their characters, would have “nuances,” but that it was Miriam Petche’s performance that made her so compelling.
“If you put on the page where you send a bio to a casting director that they’re a ‘Generation Z TikToker who works in finance,’ it’s like that’s a stereotype,” Down said.
“You have to believe that this person has incredible financial knowledge, is incredibly ambitious, is funny, has all these side hustles, has a TikTok account. And you have to believe all of that at the same time. That alchemy exists and can only happen through Miriam’s performance.”
What’s even more impressive about Miriam Petche’s performance is that Down revealed that she was still at drama school – at Guildhall – when she was cast in the role.
“That was a lot of work for her, Miriam,” he said. “This is really her first work. We are really proud.”
(Technically, Petche had worked as a child actress and appeared as Esmerelda Hallow in A lousy witch and the BBC Two series Annoyedbut there is no doubt industry is her first major role as an adult.)
You can follow Petche on Instagram and you can keep up with Sweetpea’s latest scene-stealing antics by watching new episodes of industry Season 3 on HBO and Max.
