Disclaimer: This FROM interview contains plot spoilers through season 3 episode 6.
Tabitha Matthews is uniquely qualified to try to solve the mysteries of the town. In the season 2 finale, she was guided to a magic tree. That tree transported her to a lighthouse. Upon reaching the top, a mysterious boy in white pushed her out. When she woke, she discovered she was in a hospital. For reasons yet to be explained, she was able to escape the town.
In this exclusive interview, Catalina Sandino Moreno shares about Tabitha’s dramatic fight with Jim, her love for mothers, and the Tabitha/Jade team-up to finally learn the truth about why they find themselves trapped.
In and Out of the Town
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
LadyJenevia: For the first portion of season 3, you got to film in an entirely new location with this new character Henry. What sort of effect did this have on your performance as well as your understanding of Tabitha and where she’s at in her journey?
Moreno: We were shooting in the core of winter in Nova Scotia. That takes everything to a different level. I don’t know if you’re ever been to in Nova Scotia in the winter time but it is brutal. It’s like being in the North Pole. It is freezing and everyone had to pretend that they’re warm so they need to get jackets off.
When you’re walking out on the street in the first episode, everyone is doing ‘Frozen Faces’ because it’s freezing. You have to act like it’s a little bit warmer than From-town. In the physical aspect, that changed a lot.
Working with Robert is great. I loved going to the outside world and not being in From-land. The changing of the characters is great. Finding Victor’s dad is amazing. I love that character so it’s all positive.
Motherhood
LadyJenevia: One of my favourite acting moments for you in this season so far has been the phone call Tabitha made to her mother. It was really beautiful work, especially considering that that character isn’t actually there in front of you in the scene. What were you most focused on communicating to the audience when you were playing that phone call?
Moreno: Who do you call when you have a problem? Who do you call when you’re sad? Who do you call when you’re extremely happy? I call my mom. It’s something that I don’t even have to think about. If I don’t call my mother, I call my grandmother. What I was thinking was, if I’m out the first thing that I want to do is let my mom know that I am alive, that my family is okay, that although she cannot help me in this journey that I’m in, I’m good. I want her to be okay.
How beautiful is it, even in that extreme sort of moment, that she’s afraid and doubtful and she doesn’t know if this is reality or not, she just wants to make sure that her mother knows that she’s alive.
As a mother, I just want my kid to see how much love I’ve had for good mothers. They’re irreplaceable.
Cracks In The Matthews Family
LadyJenevia: As is often the case, characters get sucked back into the town. Once Tabitha returns to the From town, we see that there are these cracks in her relationship within her family. Do you see these disagreements she has with Jim and Julie as being a continuation of fights that already were going on? Has that friction evolved in some way?
Moreno: How many episodes have you watched?
LadyJenevia: I’m up to episode six.
Moreno: Okay so you saw the fight.
LadyJenevia: Yes.
Moreno: In season one, we hear Jim say, ‘Well no, it’s going to be okay. We’re going to get out of this place.’ You’re like, ‘How do you know that? Why do you just say things to make other people feel better even if you don’t know?’ If it’s reality, you cannot just state that.
I just feel that this is a continuation from that fight. The crack in that relationship between Jim and Tava is deep but also the love between them is deep because they’ve been through so much. It’s a dichotomy of ‘like ‘I hate you but I love you’ and we’ve been through so much that we just cannot pull apart.
The first thing that she did when she was outside is, ‘I need to go back to my family’ so it’s not like she was taking a vacation from them. She was trying to get back to them. There’s a lot of breakage within her family that unfortunately is irreparable. You cannot just put a Band-Aid on and say, ‘Okay, let’s move on.’ It’s there.
I don’t know, she needs a little bit more from Jim. I think that crack is is going to be forever there.
Tabitha & Jade’s Team-Up
LadyJenevia: Tabitha and Jade are two people that are putting in a lot of work to try to solve the mystery of the town. What can you tease about how that collaboration will develop for the last bit of the season?
Moreno: They’re going to find answers. They are on the right path and they’re going to find a lot of answers. A lot of people are not going to believe the answers that they find. Keep watching cause it gets crazy.
Watch my full interviews with FROM stars Catalina Sandino Moreno and Ricky He here:
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