Marisa Abela is back on our screens as Industry’s Yasmin, the scheming, cold, but also wounded trader. She also stars on the cover of Glamour’s latest issue alongside her co-star, Myha’la, who plays Harper (also scheming, cold, wounded in her own way – this is the trading industry, darling!).

Although Abela has received resoundingly rave reviews for her remarkable turn as Yasmin – along with a few award nods and a BAFTA win – she has also experienced the disappointment of a project that was, shall we say, a little less favourably received.

©Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection

In 2024, she took on the difficult task of portraying the late R&B singer Amy Winehouse in the controversial biopic Back to Black. While many praised her performance as the troubled, soulful singer, and she even picked up a Critics Circle Best Actress nomination, others were more critical of the film, calling it “cringeworthy” and even “grotesque.”

“It’s really hard,” Abela reflects to Glamour. “The best case scenario is you read a script, and you’re like, Every single thing about this is perfect, and it’s going to be amazing, and everyone’s going to love it. But in my experience, most of the time you’re like, This is really great about it, but these things I wish were slightly different. If I believe that enough things about the project are right for me, then I will always do it because I am, for want of a better word, an artist. I’m not going to limit myself to perfection, because what is perfect?”

©Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection

But Marisa Abela can take something positive from the experience – it served as a reminder about perfectionism. She reflects, “Your work will be bad if you’re going into it thinking, ‘This has to be the best.’ I go into a day with a scene, thinking, ‘This has to be honest’. And if I reach that goal, then I’ve won.”

Industry season 4 premiered on BBC on January 12.