Swedish actor Gustav Lindh on playing a “douchebag Willy Wonka guy” in Season 3 of ‘Industry’

In season three of HBO’s British investment banking drama Industry, we have the pleasure of meeting aristocratic tech bro Henry Muck (Kit Harrington) and his rich kid friends. Among them is Xavier Lindt, arguably the greatest douche of all, played to slimy perfection by Swedish actor Gustav Lindh. The similarity in last name between actor and character is just a coincidence. “I say briefly in a line that, ‘My family is in the chocolate business’,” says Lindh. “The idea is that the’s the heir to the entire Lindt chocolate empire. He’s enjoying the chocolate wealth – sort of a douchebag Willy Wonka guy.”

Lindh was deep into pre-production of Faithless, an Ingmar Bergman adaptation set to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, when the opportunity to pop into the money-hungry world of Industry presented itself. “[Faithless] was a big undertaking, so it was great to be able to fly over there for, like, a week and a half, and just throw myself out there,” says Lindh. In fact, he met his co-stars his first day of shooting. Luckily, having been a fan of the show its first two seasons, he knew what he was getting into. “I had a pretty great conception of the tone of the show and the writing is just brilliant,” says Lindh. “It was so weird to be a fan of the fiction and then enter it.”

We first meet Xavier as he boards a private jet, a mode of transportation with which he’s undoubtedly very familiar. Lindh, meanwhile, had never set foot on a jet ahead of filming. “We didn’t even take off,” he says. While flying on a jet might be seen as glamorous (albeit not particularly sustainable), filming on one presented its challenges. “I remember it was very hot and very crammed with people,” says Lindh.

Related: Finnish actor Laura Birn is about to blow up alongside Bill Skarsgård in 'The Crow'

In fact, Lindh is unfamiliar with just about every aspect of the life led by his character. “This is pure sci-fi,” he says. “This is just another stratosphere in terms of wealth.” It’s not the first time Lindh has played an asshole; in Robert Eggers’ Viking epic The Northman he plays Thórir, a rich kid jerk of yesteryear, with stunning panache. Does he take particular pleasure in playing the jerk? “I take pleasure with working with great writing and in both The Northman and on Industry that’s what it was,” he says. “There were a couple of juicy, dirty lines here that were fun to say.” As for whether we’ll be seeing more of Xavier in episodes to come… “You’ll have to wait and see,” says Lindh.