From Star Harold Perrineau Talks Season 3, Fan Speculation, and More

The new season of the series premieres on MGM+ on September 22nd.

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Any actor or filmmaker who was involved in the ABC series Lost is quite familiar with being in a project that ignites endless speculation about what's happening currently or where it could be going, and actor Harold Perrineau is no different. Perrineau also currently stars in From, the MGM+ series that feels like the heir apparent to that series, given the tonal similarities of such a compelling and confounding narrative. Despite how many theories surround From, Perrineau recently reflected on how he opts to avoid any such discussions so he can focus solely on bringing his Boyd Stevens to life. From Season 3 premieres on MGM+ Sunday, September 22nd.

"I won't know what's happening. If they did guess it, I won't even know. I don't know, I don't wanna know," Perrineau shared with ComicBook of how little he knows about the series' trajectory. "That being said, I don't follow too many of the fan theories. I try to be as open to whatever's happening as I can, you know what I'm saying? I try to find a way to make sure Boyd just responds the way Boyd might respond, without any other noise. My head can get noisy."

FROM unravels the mystery of a nightmarish town that traps all those who enter. As the unwilling residents fight to keep a sense of normalcy and search for a way out, they must also survive the threats of the surrounding forest – including the terrifying creatures that come out when the sun goes down. In the wake of Season 2's epic cliffhanger, escape will become a tantalizing and very real possibility as the true nature of the town comes into focus, and the townspeople go on offense against the myriad horrors surrounding them.

Another trend in Perrineau's career is playing characters that are trapped in their situation, whether those be his characters in From or Lost who are mysteriously stuck in a confined environment or a character like the one he played in Oz, who was incarcerated. In a sense, his previous roles in Oz and Lost are culminating with his work as Boyd in From.

"The thing that's been really lucky about all of those shows is that they've all had amazing writers. [Oz's] Tom Fontana and [Lost's] Damon Lindelof and now John Griffin, all really amazing writers and what they write really well are human beings," the actor detailed. "What they're really able to do is to stay away from caricatures and they're looking for real responses to things and so in those places, for instance, in Oz, I know, knew a lot of people who'd been to prison for long times, short times, and what can happen to you and what can happen to your mind in there. Those choices that people make, when those people said to me, 'Yo, I've seen that before,' or, 'I know that feeling,' that makes me feel really, really great that I'm actually doing the job because I'm really trying to explore the range of human possibility within my work."

He continued, "Oz gave me a really good foundation of trying to find the human being. Lost took it to another place, because Lost, we just didn't know what the hell was ever happening, ever. Being able to still try to be grounded was really good, because now, in From, where we also don't know a lot about what's going on, I feel like all of those things help me make Boyd as grounded as possible without ever getting too caught up in any stereotype or archetype of a character, archetype of a sheriff, or archetype of the guy who saves the town -- if I save the town, I don't actually know. I can stay grounded in the person that Boyd Stevens is and what he's trying to achieve."

Neither fans nor viewers quite know how much time has passed in the world of From and how long these characters have been stranded, though we've been able to witness Boyd's growth and also his struggles in the previous two seasons, with Season 3 starting with him in a much different place from what we saw in the series premiere.

"I think this season, the town is just messing with him, man. The town is just relentlessly just poking him, like a bully, all this time, in the chest," Perrineau explained of Boyd's growth over the years. "At the end of last season, he was questioning his own brain and I think when we start up in this next season, the questions become bigger and not so much about his brain, but about his leadership. 'Is this right? Am I doing this right?' And then doggedly going, 'Yes, I am!' and then being wrong. It's gonna be a lot of that."

From has never shied away from depicting intense violence, but in the Season 3 premiere of the series, the filmmakers opted to focus on Boyd's reaction to what was unfolding than showcase the brutality of the encounter.

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"They told me a lot about what he was watching. Then I had to take those ideas and switch them into things that I could actually see," Perrineau confessed of how he depicted being a witness to such carnage. "Things that I could actually imagine, because we're in a place of creatures that are unimaginable so then I have to transfer that into something that, not only I imagine, maybe even seen and been through to give you the idea that what he's seeing is this treatment. It was pretty wild and that's just a small piece of the two hours we were there doing that. 'Let's try it again, let's think about this.'"

From Season 3 premieres on Sunday, September 22nd on MGM+.

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