The first time many of us saw Harry Lawtey, he was naked, glassy-eyed, fresh from vomiting on a sheet of newspaper, and rubbing a near-empty bag of drugs across his gums. Then we watched him head to the office. That was five years ago, in early scenes from the hit drama series Industry, in which he played an investment banker. And now, as the star of a new biopic of the Welsh film star Richard Burton, Lawtey slurs, stumbles and punches his way through a booze addiction.
“I’m not a big drinker, really,” the 28-year-old muses over Zoom, smiling sweetly. “I was a late bloomer with alcohol so I had a few years of feeling detached from it. You learn a lot about the nature of what being drunk does to people and the kind of things it amplifies. I just think it’s something to be mindful of.”
