When Kenny first strides onto the trading floor in Industry season two, you can’t help but involuntarily tense up. Season one of the HBO financial drama firmly cemented the character (played by Conor MacNeill) as one of the biggest assholes on TV—no small feat when you’re dealing with the morally dubious lot at Pierpont & Co. (to say nothing of their fictional peers at Waystar Royco). As Yasmin’s tightly wound, abusive boss on the foreign exchange desk, Kenny screams at the slightest provocation, brutally hazes her for forgetting croutons on his salad, and humiliates her at an important client dinner by getting too drunk then forcing her to get a lap dance from a stripper afterwards.
Which is what makes his pivot this season all the more unexpected. Kenny is revealed to have sobered up and softened up, and is now casually throwing around self-help platitudes every chance he can get. In the latest episode, he’s even tapped to accompany Yasmin to a client dinner because of his crypto knowledge, a scene that explicitly mirrors their worst moment from last season. It goes far better, but it’s unclear if Kenny is actually reformed or just a pain in a whole new way. (He is, at the very least, still the bane of Yasmin’s existence.)
MacNeill, who hails from Northern Ireland, talked to GQ about playing both sides of Kenny, how he drew from his own experiences in early jobs, and what people call him on the street thanks to this role.
GQ: So which is more fun: playing asshole Kenny or nice Kenny?
Conor MacNeill: I think the joy is that I got to do both. Look, being mean is fun, but when it’s Kenny mean, you sometimes feel horrible after shooting scenes. When you read it on the page, you’re like, “Oh, this is going to be amazing to shoot.” And then you’ve got Marisa [Abela] staring at you brokenhearted and it kills you. After the scene, you have to be like, “I’m so sorry.” In season one, he had such a negative mindset that that can influence your day. You can feel a bit icky and you don’t know why. And then you’re like, “Oh, I’ve been Kenny for five days this week.”
How did the role first come your way?
I was doing an Irish play on Broadway. A few of the boys were being seen for it, so I was aware of it and I’d mentioned it to my agent. Then it was just kind of a natural audition process. I didn’t hear anything for the longest time. I kind of assumed that the project had gone away, then I was called in to do a massive chemistry read with everyone.
But your version of having chemistry with someone was “how can I be the most repellent?”
Yeah, literally.
What were your first impressions of him?
Oh, I hated him the first time I read him. I was like, “This is awful.” But I love complex characters. When something isn’t accessible to you straightaway, it’s really exciting to go, “Yeah, but why? Why is he doing this? Where is this coming from?”
It’s an incredibly toxic world. It’s an incredibly patriarchal system—capitalism in general, not just banking. So I very quickly got to a place where I’m like, even though he’s a huge perpetrator and he’s pushing forward this approach to society, he is as big a victim of it as he is an advocate for it. And I found that really interesting to dig into.
Of all the terrible stuff you had to do last season, does anything stick with you?
The strip club scene was really difficult. It was really tricky to do it. You’re shooting it and it’s real and Marisa’s there and that’s happening and it was incredibly uncomfortable. I wanted to say the crouton scene with the hazing, but me and Marisa loved doing that so much. We had such a good time.
What do you think his whole problem with Yasmin was in season one: misogyny or insecurity, or is he attracted to her? Or a combo of all those things?
I think it’s all those things. You also have to be realistic about who Kenny is. He’s not the coolest, sexiest guy on the floor. He also has, a wee bit, reached his ceiling. I don’t know how great Kenny’s education was. I think he’s worked his way in and worked his way up and he had to work very, very hard to get there. I think privilege in general is something he has an issue with. Then you have an incredibly toxic, patriarchal society within that world that he has to be a part of and has to survive in. I’m five foot four, Gabriella. I’m not that sporty.
It’s all those little things: the reality of what he looks like and being working class, being not as wealthy. Everything’s a fight. Everything’s a struggle. So when you see someone like Yasmin, you see someone who has a good education, a wealthy family. He knows her stock, so to speak.
I don’t know if he fancies Yasmin. I think Kenny would like to have a beautifully stunning model girlfriend because he thinks that’s what he’s supposed to have, and he doesn’t understand why he doesn’t have that. I would say he blames a lot of it on his appearance, a lot of it on his background, and actually it’s mostly because he’s just not that nice a guy.
How did you prep for the role? Did you study finance bros, bad bosses in cinema, or was there someone particular you had in mind when you were playing him?
The show avoids Wall Street, but I always thought Kenny—if you look at the suits or their haircuts—he’s the most Wall Street-looking one. I wanted him to be like, “This is what banking is, right? I’m going to be these guys.” I’ll be brutally honest with you, I tried to read Finance For Dummies. I just say the words sometimes and hope for the best and that it sounds natural. I couldn’t quite get my head around it. I have a friend who works in finance and shadowed him in his office for a day. But what was more interesting, we went out that night to well-known bars and clubs where these guys go and drink and that I found more illuminating: their socializing and how they behaved with one another and the banter.
I was curious if you’ve ever dealt with a Kenny in your own work experiences.
100%. Especially when I was younger, because I always looked so much younger than I am. I used to be really, really skinny. It took me ages to grow a beard. It was all those things. I was always spoken down to like Yas, and you can see people that relish that opportunity, you know?
I’ve worked in a few call centers—there’s a few interesting characters in there I’ve seen along the way that want to be the dominator. I’ve seen a few of those in my travels.
I also did some call center work when I was younger, so I feel a camaraderie with anyone else who has. It’s a weird world.
It’s hard, right? It wasn’t for me. That thing of “you haven’t reached your commission targets this week.” And I’m like, “But I don’t really want to sell people this crap. It’s not my vibe. I’m just here because I need to be.” It’s a hard world, and when you’re in competitive, commission-based cold-calling, it does something to people that becomes quite unhealthy and unnatural.
What did you think when you first heard about Kenny’s big reveal in Industry season two?
I loved it. And I was really scared because I was quite sure of who he was. In season two, Kenny’s rediscovering himself in many ways. And then I was like, “Is he rediscovering himself or is this all optics?”
Yeah, do you think the change is genuine?
They’ve managed to write him in a way that the audience will feel that too—at times it seems so incredibly genuine, and then at other times that you’re not too sure if it all is a bit of an act. I had that on season two, a few times, where I was like, “I think this is genuine.” I wasn’t too sure, though. I would try to go for it in a genuine way, but deep down I wonder if Kenny is more concerned with his future and the outcome for his transgressions than he is concerned with genuinely healing.
Did you get any backstory on why he had to get sober?
I think the strip club moment and the threat of HR from Yasmin. Their manager is aware of that incident. And this season is post-lockdown, and I think within lockdown, shit probably got pretty bad with the drink for Kenny.
Have you learned anything about finance from the show, or even crypto, that you’ve applied to your own life?
I downloaded a crypto app, looked at it, and then deleted it again. I am the most useless. I still count with my fingers. I tried to understand finance and investments because I thought it’d be a great opportunity for me to do something clever with my money. But I sadly haven’t. I think if I was to take anything from Kenny into my real life it would be deeply concerning.
Deleting the crypto app was definitely the right move, as we’ve now seen.
I don’t understand it. I don’t get what it is.
What do people say to you when they recognize you as Kenny on the street?
People are either really lovely because they’re like, “Oh my God, what a brilliant performance.” I have been called a see-you-next-Tuesday on the street, though, by some guy. He was like, “You’re that dude from Industry!” I was like, “Yeah.” And then he was like, “Dude, you’re a—”
This interview has been edited and condensed.