'From' Season 4 Interview: Harold Perrineau

Moviefone speaks with Harold Perrineau about 'From' Season 4. "It's darker than we've been in the past and we've been very dark," Perrineau explained.

(L to R) Harold Perrineau as Boyd Stevens in 'From' season 4. Credit: Jessie Redmond/MGM+. Copyright: MGM+.

Premiering on MGM+ April 19th is the fourth season of the popular science fiction horror series ‘From’, which stars Harold Perrineau (‘Lost’ and ‘The Matrix Reloaded’) and Catalina Sandino Moreno (‘Ballerina’ and ‘The Rip’).

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Harold Perrineau about his work on ‘From’ Season 4, how his character has changed since last season, how the town has changed him, what it’s been like playing this role, and welcoming the new actors joining the cast.

(L to R) Harold Perrineau as Boyd Stevens in 'From' season 4. Credit: Chris Reardon/MGM+. Copyright: MGM+.

Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about where we left Boyd at the end of the last season and where we find him at the beginning of the new season and what he’s dealing with?

Harold Perrineau: Well, at the end of season 3, Boyd has been through a lot at this point. He's been through the death of Tian-Chen and having to experience watching her die, then telling her son, and then his daughter-in-law being pregnant and torturing a boy. It's been a lot. Then at the end of all of that, the one monster that he killed is back to life and is reincarnated. So, when Boyd starts in season 4, his mind is shattered. So, he must try to figure out how to put it all back together and keep moving forward to get everybody out of this town. But it's not easy and it's never going to be easy, and the town is becoming worse. So that's where we start off season 4.

MF: Is the pressure of leading this town starting to get to Boyd and is he becoming someone that can’t even recognize himself?

HP: One hundred percent because he keeps being confronted with new things that he never expected to have to be confronted with. You never think that you're going to have to torture some kid, so he'll give you information about your daughter in-law. So, this season when we get back, we've got more of that kind of like, “Oh, you might have to do this, and Father Khatri is going to show up and say you got to do that,” and it's just constant. It's a nonstop barrage of terrible choices he must make. But if he wants to get out, that's what he's got to do.

(L to R) David Alpay as Jade Herrera, Harold Perrineau as Boyd Stevens, and Catalina Sandino Moreno as Tabitha Matthews in 'From' season 4. Credit: Chris Reardon/MGM+. Copyright: MGM+.

MF: What has it been like for you playing a character like this over four seasons?

HP: At the end of the day, I love it. But I can't say it's the easiest thing I've ever done. You know what I mean? Like emotionally you wear yourself out. Because what I really hope is that I'm telling the truth so that the audience will stay on the ride with us, right? Because I think that people, they respond to other people in real emotions. So, that's what I'm hoping for, and if I bring what is happening to me, then I must experience it. So, there's a scene in the very first episode, and I couldn't even say the words until we started running the cameras. I was able to do all the rehearsing and the blocking, but I couldn't say any of the words because it was just too hard. Then when I got to do it and say it over and over, I could never say them again. Like that was just too much to carry. So, hopefully the audience will feel those things and I don't have to do it again. But it is a real honor, and it is what I want to do. Whether it's hard or not, that's what I really want to do. I keep hoping that it works, and it feels like now that we have a season 4, it must be working on some level.

MF: Finally, how does Boyd feel about the new characters introduced this season, and as an actor and producer, can you talk about welcoming new actors to the show?

HP: Well, as an executive producer and a cast member, I am overjoyed by everybody who shows up. We have had and continue to have just amazing people who show up and work with us. We've got Julia Doyle, who's playing Sophia, and she's fantastic, and Robert Joy is always just a stunning joy to work with. So as a producer, and cast member, it's great. Boyd, on the other hand, it's just another person you can't trust. So, another person you must save that you can't trust, and this season, you really can't trust anybody. Boyd can't trust himself. So that's the thing that's tricky about this season and how dark it is. It's darker than we've been in the past and we've been very dark.

'From' season 4 premieres on MGM+ April 19th.

What is the plot of ‘From’ Season 4?

In Season Four, the closer the residents of town get to the answers they seek, the more terrifying their search becomes. Who is the Man in Yellow (Douglas E. Hughes), and what does he want? Will Jade (David Alpay) and Tabitha’s (Catalina Sandino Moreno) revelation be the key to finally going home? How much longer can Boyd (Harold Perrineau) hold the town together, even as his body and mind are falling apart? And what role will the town’s most recent arrival play in the events to come? Season Four will open doors that some in town will end up wishing had remained closed.