Charlie Heaton on James Dycker’s downward spiral after Tender exposé in Industry Season 4

In a Collider interview published Feb. 1, 2026, Charlie Heaton discussed playing financial journalist James Dycker in HBO’s Industry Season 4 (spoilers for Episode 4), saying Dycker’s promising exposé of fintech firm Tender ultimately backfires and shifts the spotlight onto Jim’s own bad decisions.

Heaton likened watching Industry to watching Shakespeare—“you understand the stakes and the tension, but you don’t really understand what’s going on,” he told Collider—and said he had only about a week to prep before joining the established cast, who made him feel welcomed on set.

He described his first day shooting a club scene opposite Kiernan Shipka, noting the production brought in a real DJ (DJ Tennis) and filmed guerrilla-style moments in Canary Wharf. Heaton said those early scenes show Jim making ethically compromised choices—pocketing drugs, staying in a house he shouldn’t have—and that the character’s moral compass increasingly skews as the season continues.

On portraying Jim’s collapse, Heaton said the role was exhausting but rewarding: the character runs on prescription pills, cigarettes and coffee and is “a ticking time bomb.” He credited director Michelle Savill’s physical exercises and theater-based techniques for helping the cast find the physicality of the spiral, and called the final weeks on set draining.

charlie heaton, james dycker, industry season 4, tender exposé, hbo industry, episode 4 spoilers, collider interview, kiernan shipka club scene, canary wharf filming, michelle savill, dj tennis, prescription pills