{"id":475824,"date":"2026-02-18T12:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T12:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/475824\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T12:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T12:36:09","slug":"industry-charlie-heaton-on-ending-stranger-things-and-jims-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/475824\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Industry’ Charlie Heaton on Ending ‘Stranger Things’ and Jim’s Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t[This story contains major spoilers from\u00a0Industry<\/a>\u00a0season four and mild spoilers from the series finale of Stranger Things.]<\/p>\n

\n\tMany stories begin at the end. Charlie Heaton\u2019s\u00a0Industry\u00a0story is one such tale, albeit with a twist: it starts with\u00a0two\u00a0endings.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe actor was closing up his home in Atlanta, Georgia, where he spent the better part of a decade shooting\u00a0Stranger Things<\/a>, the Netflix<\/a> sensation now gone the way of the Upside Down<\/a>. As he wrapped up one major chapter of his life, Heaton got the call that he booked his\u00a0next\u00a0chapter: a role on HBO<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0Industry, the critically adored finance drama. Where the heroes of Hawkins battled Demogorgons and Mind Flayers, the antiheroes of\u00a0Industry\u00a0wage a different war altogether: workplace power dynamics, sexual dominance, prolific drug use and earning the almighty dollar at any literal and more cost<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tHeaton would be joining the cast for season four as a brand new character. He was the very first character seen in the premiere<\/a>: Jim Dycker, a finance journalist investigating high level fraud \u2014 a crusade he waged at, once again, just about any literal and moral cost. In the end, he paid the highest cost of all however, when he lost his life on the other side of a major drug bender with the show\u2019s most\u00a0Uncut Gems\u00a0coded character, Rishi, played with chaotic perfection by Sagar Radia. <\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tDiscovering Jim dead on his couch, and hearing cops right outside the door, Rishi \u2014 whose life is already in the bin, thanks to a gambling addiction that directly led to his wife\u2019s murder in the previous season\u2019s finale \u2014 decides enough is enough. He leaps off the flat\u2019s balcony, intending to join Jim in the great beyond. Instead, he pays the moral cost, not the literal one, as he survives the fall and is taken away by police. And that\u2019s a wrap on Rishi as we know him.<\/p>\n

\n\tSigning up for the series for only four episodes, Heaton knew he was joining a well-loved show for a very specific purpose. And he knew it intimately, long before shooting the scene. In order to secure the part on\u00a0Industry, Heaton taped an audition reading not just any scene as Jim, but reading the\u00a0final\u00a0scene as Jim, which contains a nearly nonstop drug-addled back-and-forth with Rishi. Taping the scene, capturing the final moments of a man\u2019s life, ended up being a harrowing experience, understandably, not just because of the text, but because of the\u00a0text\u00a0\u2014 as in, an unbelievable amount of jargon-infused dialogue. For Heaton, the result was an equally frustrated performance that mimicked Jim in his last couple of minutes on Earth \u2014 exactly what\u00a0Industry\u00a0creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay were seeking.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was Friday when Heaton was in Atlanta, knee-deep in packing, when he got the call that he won the part. Shooting would begin in the United Kingdom on Monday. Two endings, leading to a new beginning. Below, Heaton spoke with\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter\u00a0about that frenetic journey, returning from the middle America of\u00a0Stranger Things\u00a0to his home country on\u00a0Industry, and why he can\u2019t believe there are still folks who don\u2019t believe\u00a0Stranger Things\u00a0has truly ended<\/a> \u2014 and perhaps with good reason, given Heaton\u2019s thoughts on an eventual revival.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was your familiarity with\u00a0Industry\u00a0before signing on? Were you a fan?<\/p>\n

\n\tNo, I\u2019d heard of the show, but I\u2019d never seen it. I heard of it as promotion for season three came around a bit heavier, and I had a few friends who were watching it. When this came around, it was really last minute for an audition. It was a dense, dense amount of dialogue in the sides. I put myself down on tape. I had an idea of roughly what I wanted to do. And then I had a chat with Konrad and Mickey, and I think I auditioned on Wednesday, had a call with them on Friday, flew from Atlanta where I was at the time, over to Cardiff to film on a Monday. The whole thing was so fast and\u00a0so\u00a0intimidating. I had to digest the show so fast. When you\u2019re coming onto another show, it\u2019s the first thing you have to do: understand the tone.\u00a0Industry\u00a0is so much about the tone.<\/p>\n

\n\tAbsolutely; you don\u2019t need to know the trading jargon to understand Jimmy and Rishi are in a bad way, and that\u2019s what matters most. But\u00a0you\u00a0need to get a handle on the jargon, right? You need to make it sound believable, and you needed to learn that really quickly.<\/p>\n

\n\tDefinitely. In the beginning, because it was coming around so fast, I was reading and reading and reading and going over all my lines almost mechanically. I knew I had to know that dialogue inside and out. Even if I didn\u2019t fully understand the whole time what I was saying [I just needed to get it down]. And the anxiety \u2026 I had just finished\u00a0Stranger Things. I\u2019ve been on that show since the very beginning, and I\u2019ve experienced people coming into the show and what that feels like. But I\u2019ve never done that myself, where you\u2019re joining in an established cast. So it was a new experience.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCharlie Heaton in season four of Industry.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSimon Ridgway\/HBO<\/p>\n

\n\tAny hazing rituals?<\/p>\n

\n\tNo\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tNo one pressured you to spill the\u00a0Stranger Things\u00a0ending<\/a>?<\/p>\n

No, they were great. (Laughs.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019re the very first character we follow in season four. It sets you up as a major player. And now here we are past the midpoint, and you\u2019re already gone. Was it a surprise to you, or was that part of the deal when you signed on?<\/p>\n

No, not a surprise. That was my audition scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWow, they threw you in the deep end.<\/p>\n

\n\tI remember being mad about it! Because by now, you\u2019ve seen how much dialogue that is. I was like, \u201cThey want me to learn all this dialogue in two days?\u201d I remember being angry. Part of that rage of like: This is so unfair. They want me to learn this whole thing. I half learned it. I was reading off the paper. I was pretty frantic. I also know that because\u00a0Industry\u00a0is set in London and everyone on it at that point had been quite posh and Southern, I was trying to do a bit of that accent as well. And then on that scene, my Northern accent just broke through. It was my natural self. When I spoke with them, they asked, \u201cCan you do that? What you did in the second take?\u201d So that rage really helped out.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo your journey with this character really does begin at the end. Was it helpful to have his death as a North star, especially having already performed it?<\/p>\n

\n\tYes. It\u2019s like unveiling the onion. It\u2019s so telling as to where this person is going to go when things go wrong. In life when things go wrong, that\u2019s when you really find out people\u2019s character. And it is tragic. It\u2019s sad. They\u2019re so good at pushing these characters to the wire. There\u2019s even that surprise with Jim. There\u2019s a line in it about him, the fact that he was at a gay bar. And I don\u2019t know, there was just so many little reveals of what his subconscious is saying in that scene and his belief. So you really get to know who he is and then working backwards from that, it\u2019s like, Okay, we\u2019re putting a mask on. What\u2019s he like at work? How does he present himself?<\/p>\n

\n\tAt what point in the process did you shoot the death scene?<\/p>\n

The very end.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou ended with the end!\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTotally, man. And it was such a crazy scene to shoot.<\/p>\n

\n\tAbsolutely. It\u2019s your very final scene as Jim, obviously, but it\u2019s also so central to Rishi, who is such a dangerous figure on the show.<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, it was Sagar\u2019s finale as well. You asked earlier if I was a fan, and when I started watching the show, that first season, Rishi really stands out. He says such wild things. He really goes there. His character sets the tone a lot for the specific tone in\u00a0Industry. So I was really excited I got to get that scene with him. He\u2019s such a wonderful actor and we both knew the stakes. <\/p>\n

\n\tWe both got to rehearse it with director Michelle Savill beforehand. We hadn\u2019t gotten the dialogue fully down, so we were both a bit nervous about rehearsing. In the script, it\u2019s a dialogue-based scene, but she let us play around and find props. The amount of freedom from Konrad and Mickey and Michelle was a really cool thing about\u00a0Industry\u00a0that I liked. They shoot it very non-traditionally. They use long lenses, so the way they cover a scene allows you to be able to explore the space you\u2019re in. You\u2019re not stuck to anything. <\/p>\n

\n\tWe\u2019d be encouraged to get up and try something else. It was very freeing. They didn\u2019t worry too much about continuity. I think for them, what is important is energy and pace. Like you say, you don\u2019t need to understand the dialogue all the time to understand the show, as long as you get the state.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tHeaton (left) with co-stars Natalia Dyer, Maya Hawke and Joe Keery in their final scene of Stranger Things.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tYou started\u00a0Industry\u00a0on the nearly immediate other side of finishing\u00a0Stranger Things. You\u2019re not the first major franchise player to join this cast. Did you ever got a chance to speak with Kiernan Shipka and Kit Harington about their experiences navigating their careers after\u00a0Mad Men\u00a0and\u00a0Game of Thrones?<\/p>\n

\n\tI spent a lot of time with Kiernan. We talked about\u00a0Mad Men\u00a0and of course\u00a0Sabrina.\u00a0She\u2019s been at this for such a long time. And Kit, we only had one conversation, because we had just that one scene where I confront him at the press conference. We got to hang out all day on set. I had just wrapped\u00a0Stranger Things, and I think it was very apparent I had just gone through that experience. There\u2019s a bit of kinship there, understanding what things are like when such a big part of your life ends.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe didn\u2019t warn you there would be fans out there insisting there\u2019s a secret bonus final episode <\/a>to the show? \u201cPeople were so sure about this Game of Thrones extra episode, \u2018Westeros Gate\u2019\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGosh, it\u2019s mind-blowing. (Laughs.) It\u2019s very funny, and very interesting how people process things coming to an end, and not wanting it to be over. It\u2019s mad that there\u2019s such a big reaction in that way. I find it really, really interesting, to be honest.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s life like for you right now, just a bit more than a month past the finale?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s still very out there at the moment. Every time the show would come out \u2014 and you\u2019re in the zeitgeist, in everybody\u2019s homes \u2014 when they see you on the street, they love to scream their opinions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDo they want to know what Jonathan\u2019s cannibal movie is about?<\/p>\n

\n\tNo one\u2019s asked that yet.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Duffers said<\/a> the finale contained clues for the spinoff. Folks are locked in on this weird magic rock. What if it\u2019s just a series of low-budget indies directed by Jonathan?<\/p>\n

\n\tI would love that. How cool. (Laughs.) Just a bunch of really bad features!<\/p>\n

\n\tAre you fully finished, in your mind? Say 20 years pass and the Duffers want to get the gang back together<\/a>. Are you in or out?<\/p>\n

\n\tI mean, how can you say? Twenty years from now is such a long time. You still need time to process this right now. It only just ended. But I\u2019m so excited to see what they do next, even outside of the franchise. I think for them to reach the end here and get to ask that question: \u201cWhat do we do now?\u201d I think that\u2019s great. But we are a family. And I do think it\u2019s finally hitting us all that it\u2019s over. We have a group chat, and it\u2019s clear that it\u2019s hit us at different points. It\u2019s still not fully realized that we\u2019ve said goodbye to it. Usually we go back to film around midway through the year. So I think there will be all these little moments where we realize it\u2019s over. But you know, their original idea was to do season one, and then have season two set 15 years later. So you never know\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tIndustry releases new episodes Sundays on HBO and streams on HBO Max at 9 p.m.; Stranger Things is streaming on Netflix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[This story contains major spoilers from\u00a0Industry\u00a0season four and mild spoilers from the series finale of Stranger Things.] Many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,1035,7263,217,13671,145369,64590],"class_list":["post-475824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-hbo","tag-industry","tag-netflix","tag-stranger-things","tag-stranger-things-5","tag-the-duffer-brothers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}