Warning: spoilers ahead for season three, episode four of Industry
It’d be easy to dismiss Sweetpea Golightly, the stylish blonde rookie banker played with verve by Miriam Petche in the propulsive third season of Industry. We first meet the new sales and training graduate filming a “morning in the life” TikTok for her 50,000 followers on the Pierpoint trading floor. “Always be the first on the floor, and ABSTBB: Always be secure in that bag, bish,” the wanna-be influencer tells her “corporate girlies.” A tabloid story about “embezzler heiress” Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abela) is displayed on her computer screen when her embattled supervisor arrives at work. “Bet your DMs were filthy when all this dropped,” she says. “I’m guessing a lot of unsolicited dick pics.”
“In the script, she was described as ‘Gen Z on steroids,’” Petche says of the cheeky designer-clad trainee hoping to score a permanent position at the fictional investment firm at the center of the critically acclaimed workplace drama. Sweetpea has quickly acclimated to the frenzied London trading floor, where the wheeling, dealing, and drugging of her ambitious and often cutthroat colleagues rarely leads to any lasting satisfaction for them. Now, with Pierpoint banking on its new ethical and social impact IPOs, Petche’s spirited performance as the whip-smart newcomer with a secret side hustle plays a pivotal role in the self-absorbed traders’ fortunes. And they underestimate her at their peril.
“I’ve met a few people like Sweetpea, with her kind of confidence, going into situations where she might not know exactly what’s going on, but she completely backs herself,” the much more reserved Petche tells W over Zoom from her hometown of Brighton, England, where she lives with her two Golden Retrievers, and spends as much time as possible at the beach swimming.
For the former child actress—as a teenager, Petche appeared alongside Bella Ramsey in the U.K. kids’ series The Worst Witch— auditioning to play the self-possessed zoomer was a no-brainer. She had been a fan of the show since Abela told her she was cast back in 2020 (the two acted together in a play called Runts in London in 2016). “It was kind of a full-circle moment for us,” she says about their reunion. Petche left to film in Wales even before officially graduating from the prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she had been studying for the previous three years.
Unlike Pierpoint’s new hire, Petche was apprehensive about joining the established ensemble. “I respected them all as actors and really wanted to impress them,” she explains. But she quickly clicked with the cast, who were “lovely and kind and down to earth and hardworking. After my first rehearsal, I was like, Oh, I can breathe.”
Getting under Sweatpea’s skin began with asking the show’s creators, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, about that unusual name. “One of my first questions was, ‘Is this a nickname, or is this her birth name?’ And they said, ‘It’s her birth name.’” They also said “Golightly” wasn’t meant as a Breakfast at Tiffany’s reference. She fleshed out a backstory and decided that, appearances to the contrary, Sweetpea isn’t posh. “I didn’t see her coming from money, which is why she’s so eager to prove herself and wants to show off her gorgeous clothes.” It turns out Sweetpea’s second career as an OnlyFans model pays for those pricey outfits—and foul-mouthed market maker Rishi (Sagar Radia) is one of her clients. Petche is more modest. “It’s not me, it’s a body double,” she says.
Another challenge for the young actress was sounding authentic while spouting the show’s sometimes impenetrable financial jargon. Once Petche learned that even the veterans didn’t always understand their characters’ trader talk, she instead focused on conveying the emotions behind the information. Which, for Sweetpea, becomes heightened as the bankers continually disregard her, like when she tries to tell them about the findings of her “risk model indicator.”
Can Petche relate to being underestimated based on her appearance? “It’s hard for me to look at that objectively in my life,” she says. “But I can understand [how] Sweetpea feels. She has so much to offer, and people just take her at face value. I haven’t so much felt like that.”
She also doesn’t quite possess Sweatpea’s swagger. “I like to believe that I advocate for myself. [But] she sees how to be one step ahead and calculates how to push herself forward. Whereas I’m probably more like, Wow, look at this big room. Not to belittle myself, but…she’s completely confident in her abilities and where she belongs, which is something I could learn from.”
As for the attention this breakout role is likely to bring, Petche has no expectations. “I’m going to let things come as they come. I’m lucky enough that I have the best support system in the world—my parents, my sister, and my dogs.” Fashioning a career like Jodie Comer’s is a goal. “She’s worked across the board in TV, film, and theater, and there doesn’t seem to be a limit to what she can do. She is completely dedicated to her craft and lets the work speak for itself.”
