Disclaimer: This FROM interview has been edited for clarity and brevity, and contains plot spoilers for season 3 episode 1.
FROM is a science fiction horror series focused on a group of people trapped in a strange and mysterious small town. Monsters come out at night to terrorise and hunt the town residents. Talismans are available to charm enclosed spaces such as houses and cars to keep the monsters out.
It has become increasingly rare for original streaming series to survive long enough to reach season 3. FROM is also a streaming anomaly insofar as the series releases new episodes on a weekly basis. The show’s dramatic horror incidents and compelling mystery have proven to be strong conversation starters. As such, FROM has amassed a continually growing fanbase dedicated to recruiting more people to watch this gripping story.
FROM star Harold Perrineau is aware of how much the show is continuing to reach new viewers.
Harold Perrineau: People really are searching it out now and people are looking for it. I still don’t fully feel it all yet and I know that a lot of people in my cast don’t fully feel it all yet but I’m thinking that we’re going to feel it a lot more in this third season. This third season is really dark and people seem to like that kind of stuff. I’m really happy about it. We are working really, really hard. Not that people don’t work hard in other shows but I think we’re working really, really hard, and I think we we have a product that’s really worthy of your entertainment time.
Also, that we get to do it with 10 weeks with the audience, I love that. I love that we get to spread it out for 10 weeks and and talk about it, think about it, and have theories about it. I’m really excited and and and I’m really hopeful that it makes the conversation bigger. I’m really hoping that it keeps going.
Now that Perrineau has inhabited the character Boyd Stevens for multiple seasons, he has come to realise that his own protective instincts are well suited to the role.
Harold Perrineau: (jokingly) I’m really scared of monsters and I don’t like the 50s. The Milkman thing, it’s not my thing.
One of the things that I really feel good about is that my ‘protect’ mechanism that works in my ‘Harold everyday’ life, it’s come to some use that doesn’t frustrate my daughters. It’s really there and I get to use it all as Boyd Stevens and then [the] kids aren’t like rolling their eyes at me. [They’re] like, ‘What’s the matter with you?’
I’ve learned that I actually have some use for it and while it sounds like I’m joking, I’m really really serious about that. I annoy them a lot so I get to use all that stuff that I have, that pent up anxiety, and I get to really use it on screen. I can tell by the way the audience responds that it’s really coming off as real. That’s what I’ve learned. I have a place for all that stuff.
The FROM season 3 premiere concluded tragically. Monsters held Boyd Stevens and Tian-Chen Liu captive in a barn. The monsters proceeded to violently murder Tian-Chen while forcing Boyd to watch. This becomes a new dynamic between Boyd and the monsters that carries further into season 3. This begs the question of whether Boyd can maintain his humanity while leading the fight against the monsters.
Harold Perrineau: It’s a question that I have about Boyd as well. Can he maintain his humanity? It’s not even so much against the monsters as much as it is about his own beliefs about his beliefs and who he has to protect. Is is he now the monster in everybody else’s eyes? He’s got to make some some really hard choices that make us question his humanity, and it’s not so much the monsters that are making him answer that question.
Given Boyd’s position in the town and the close relationships he has with other people such as his son Ellis, Kenny, and Donna, it’s inevitable that this newfound aggression from the monsters would impact those interpersonal relationships.
Harold Perrineau: The town is is really picking on him. It’s like a bully, they’re just picking on him. Playing the character, it felt like at any time he could just explode in the middle of the street [into] a pile of blood like pow! It’s over! It’s made his connection with one character in particular really explosive but with some of the other characters it’s edgy. He’s like, ‘Don’t get in my way cause I’m trying to get you home. Don’t make me beat you up to make you safe.’
It’s a really weird place for him to be but I think he’s got no choice. The town is literally like singling him out and picking on him and it’s a lot to deal with when you’re trying to get everybody home to safety. It’s made his relationships with some of the other characters really really interesting. He has some compassion for other characters but some he has zero time. Zero.
Given this newfound attention from the monsters, it’s natural to wonder whether or not they can break Boyd. If not the monsters, what exactly would it take to break Boyd Stevens?
Harold Perrineau: This might sound stupid for you guys but as an actor, I plant things in my brain just from wherever I get the information. I was talking to a friend of mine who had been in a lot of military activity around the world. He said every time they had to go into a into battle, as it were, the mindset was, ‘This battle isn’t over until you’re all dead or we’re all dead.’ I implanted that into the way that I think about Boyd so what will break him? If he’s dead. There’s no stopping so either you kill him or he kills you and that’s how I see it. That’s what I’ve implanted in my mind.
It’s weird to say this. We’re supposed to be having fun [in this interview] (laughs) but that’s what I’ve implanted into the character because I think that’s what he needs. I think if you learn that in the military, I don’t think that goes away. I think that stays who you are through your life.
When Boyd got [to the town], he was definitely a seasoned military man and he thought that that was going to be enough to get him through. It turns out that he was brand new in this situation. He doesn’t have any idea what’s happening so right now, I feel like we’re really in the middle and in the middle can be really frustrating. You know where you came from but especially in this kind of game, you just can’t see the path out.
You know there’s one. It’s there, but you are so clouded with all the stuff. You know it’s there. You know that you’re going to hit it and you just have to keep taking the next little step. Right now, he’s just in the middle of it. The path isn’t there but he’s going to find it, or like I said, he’s going to die trying. You’re gonna have to kill him to stop him from trying.
One of the recurring patterns in the first half of FROM season 3 is different people in the town coming to Boyd and challenging him on his decisions about the best way to survive in the town. Each time, Boyd counters will a well-argued rebuttal.
Harold Perrineau: The biggest question is, is he right? He believes he’s right but is he right? [This] is what we’re going to keep trying to find out. It’s his qualities, it’s his experience, like we were just talking about, his experience in in being in places that are rife with danger. He does feel that he is the only one who’s been in those situations and so you should trust him more than you should trust [others who have] not been in this stuff. There’s one character in particular that I get into this fight with all the time. I’m like, ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about. You just don’t know what you’re talking about.’
I think it’s his leadership qualities that keep bringing him back to try it this way, and then sometimes he is right but I’m not sure that he’s always right. That’s what I think makes him an interesting character to play.
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Stream FROM now on MGM+.
Watch my full interview with Harold Perrineau and review of FROM season 3 here:
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