Each new season of FROM seems to bring with it a new set of complications.
The town, perpetually in a state of panic and paranoia, has deteriorated from the place we first found it, where the ominous box was still a worry, curfews were strictly followed, and the town was firmly divided.
Everything has changed from those early days.
The leader of the town, Boyd Stevens, has always been the one others look to when the darkness overshadows the light. But FROM Season 4 introduces us to a very different Boyd Stevens.
If FROM Season 3 was one of serious trials and tribulations, then this upcoming season feels like it will be one of revelations.
Everything feels wrong, including Boyd’s defeatist attitude. Though after what he just saw, it’s hard to blame him for feeling like nothing they ever do in that town makes a difference in the end.
After a gripping FROM Season 4 Episode 1, I talked with star Harold Perrineau about Boyd’s fragile state of mind, what it may take for him to feel hopeful again, and what he’d say to the fans clamoring for more answers.
One of the hardest-working and most talented actors of his generation, Perrineau continues to anchor this critical darling of a show and shares his thoughts on Boyd and what’s ahead.
I didn’t realize until I started watching the past couple of days how much I missed FROM. It’s been so long.
It’s been too long. Let’s be honest.
It’s been so long. I was just trying to get my mind back into everything. And Boyd, this season, in the beginning, is very broken. It doesn’t feel like it’s one thing that’s gotten him to this point, but just a series of different losses.
Walk me through his state of mind at the beginning of the season and what we’re going to see from him as the season continues.
Right. So, the only way to walk you forward is to take you back just a little bit.
And so, we go back to him being shot and grabbed by monsters, and all this other stuff. Those are the physical things, and not to mention the Parkinson’s, that ticking time bomb that’s always there.
But to have to experience Tien-Chen’s death in real time, that’s terrible. To have to then tell Kenny, that’s terrible. And then, to actually witness the rebirth of the one thing that you actually killed… splintered, his mind splintered.
His body is tough, he’s all that stuff, but his mind is fully in pieces. And so, to me, this season is when your body is broken, and your mind is in pieces, but you have to keep going forward, that’s the drama, that’s the tension for me, that’s the thing that feels really visceral.
That’s what I keep trying to achieve for Boyd throughout the whole season. It’s split apart. Smiley just split the whole thing apart, and that’s what his thoughts are at the beginning of Season 4.
Absolutely. He feels hopeless. He makes a lot of statements in the premiere, and with the bullets, he appears to be done with it.
What do you think it’s going to take for him to feel hope again? Do you think it’s even possible, at least to start the season, for Boyd to feel any hope again?
That’s an interesting question because, while he does have hope, I don’t think he experiences it in that way. Hope feels a little joyful.
He has a dogged determination, do you know what I mean, like, he’s going to finish this, or it’s going to finish him. One way or another, one of those two things is going to happen. And I don’t know if you call that hope, but he’s not going to stop.
So, I know that’s the way I play him. That will keep going, even as he’s trying to pick up the pieces of all the stuff that’s shattered, not just for him, but for the whole town that they’re in. He’s carrying a lot of stuff. And yeah, every time I get a script, I’m like, “What? He’s got to do what?” And so, it’s really hard.
So, it’s persistence. He’s more persistent than hopeful.
Yeah! See, that’s why I like talking to writers. I was like, “I don’t know if you call it hope,” but it’s persistence.
I think you’re right because hope implies something good. Hoping for the best. You don’t usually hope for the worst, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I really loved the scene between Boyd and Ellis. There are so many great, if you want to call them duos, on the show, but Boyd and Ellis, father and son, that’s one of the great ones.
And we don’t really get to see a lot of raw emotional vulnerability from Boyd all the time because somebody has to keep it together.
How necessary do you think it was for him to finally just have a moment, even if it was just for those few minutes, to let his guard down, especially with his son?
This is what I think is the genius of John Griffin. It’s that, heroes, when you write a hero, or you do a guy in a hero story, you don’t ever get to see the moments when they go, “Yeah, I don’t think I can do this.”
And I think it’s really great to get to see that with this character, and to see his son actually be there to comfort him. And while we don’t have many racial implications in the show necessarily, for me, seeing that of these two men is something that you just don’t get a lot of chance to see.
I don’t think, and this is no slight to him, I would ever see my dad like that, do you know what I mean? It’s not a slight to him, like, that’s just the way he goes.
But to see that in these two men, any two fathers and sons, really, but to get to see that, I think it’s really special, and it’s really interesting. And we both were really committed to being truthful about it.
Boyd can’t stop, and his son grabs him, and Boyd can’t even reach back out, because it’s still a fight, but he doesn’t stop him. And I think that that tension is really beautiful.
I completely agree.
FROM, as a series, thrives on mystery. There are many moving parts. But fans are very hungry for answers. What would you say to those viewers who are ready for more clarity at this point in the story?
I would just say that, listen, we are on the ride with you, and we’re getting clearer and clearer. We’re putting the puzzle together more and more.
When my daughter does a jigsaw puzzle, she always starts with the edges. She still doesn’t know what all those pieces are, but once she gets it all done, it’s over.
So, hold on, we’re going to get answers, but don’t try to end my job already because I’m actually having fun, and I think the audience is actually having fun too.
Of course.
So, I think that we should take all the answers that we get, and really, it sounds cliché, but this, in the moment, this is where the fun is. Not at the end, not having the answers, but this is the juice, this is where we’re having a good time.
Absolutely. And just one word to describe FROM Season 4.
Mean.
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You can watch FROM on Sundays at 9/8c on MGM+.
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