We recently talked with actor Harold Perrineau about his role in the new Epix horror series From. The series unravels the mystery of a nightmarish town in middle America 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.
Created and executive produced by John Griffin (Crater), directed and executive produced by Jack Bender (Lost, Game of Thrones, Mr. Mercedes), and showrun and executive produced by Jeff Pinkner (Fringe, Alias, Lost), From features a stellar ensemble cast lead by Perrineau.
Horror Geek Life: Harold, how did you get involved in the From series?
Harold Perrineau: So, the casting director who is here in the United States, Seth Yanklewitz, is a really close friend of our family, and he was casting this show, and he said, “I’m casting this show for Epix, and I just think you’re the lead, I think your this guy. Would you be okay with me presenting you to the creators?” I asked, “Who are the creators?” He said, “Well, Jack Bender is the executive producer, you know from Lost, and Jeff Pinkner, also from Lost and Fringe,” and I was like, “Yeah, I know those guys. Whatever they’re doing will probably be great, so go present it and let me know.”
They presented it, and they said no, we don’t want anyone from Lost (laughs), but Seth said no, I’m going to go back to them again and want you to read it, so I read it. There was more back-and-forth, and Seth convinced them to have a conversation with me. Then, we all agreed when we talked that, yeah, this makes sense, so that’s how we got there.
HGL: When you read the script and considered playing Boyd, what convinced you to take the lead?
Harold Perrineau: I really love how complex Boyd was and all the other characters. I was curious about where the stories for the other characters would go and what was up with Boyd and his son, the nurse, and the young deputy. I didn’t know anything about this stuff or what was happening, and that was really interesting. I thought the writing and the story were great and very compelling, and to be honest, I didn’t realize it was part of the horror genre at first because it was so suspenseful.
However, I know Jack and Jeff. They aren’t just about blood and guts. I know exactly what they are going after, and that’s who these human beings are. That’s what’s going to lock us in. The script read like that, and it was really good.
HGL: The horror aspect is there, and the dread hangs over the show, making it exciting and full of tension. How did you take advantage of that for your role and while interacting with fellow actors?
Harold Perrineau: I tried to do my best to make the character as human as possible. I try to draw out of myself the things that make me think, yeah, I would do that, or this is the course I would take. Just as a human being, this is what I would do to protect my kid. This is what I would do if I were tasked with taking care of this town. That’s how I go after it.
We also have all of these great actors who do that same thing. The way they are making these characters, these people, real, that’s magical. We’ll let the audience figure out everything else, and its creepy woods, the color of the show, I mean the town is like this blue, gray, misty look. That whole part, the monsters, the town that gets handled by Jack and those guys, but our job was to bring as much humanity as we could, then the rest will look that much more real.
HGL: Boyd has some great moments in the first few episodes, including compelling solo scenes, at times with no dialogue. Are scenes like that hard to do when you have no one to work off of, or is that simply part of your craft?
Harold Perrineau: Those scenes, it’s a combination of all of those things, but the thing that makes it easier is that it’s a really good script. It makes it easy, and you can connect the dots. You don’t have to make any big leaps to put yourself in this position, and the kind of things you might think about, the emotional and facial expressions that those things would evoke. It makes it come easy, but if you cultivate it, it’s always sitting there, and that part makes it tough because we’re filming in Halifax, in Canada, and everybody is so nice, and you’re just walking around with a cloud all day! (laughs) You try to be nice, but yeah, that part was tricky at times to navigate. All of that makes it easier. You don’t have to manifest it. I mean, I had to walk around with it a lot, so saying it’s easy is what makes sense to say. It becomes easy because this is how I feel.
HGL: From has a classic setup featuring a threat from the outside and a threat from within. Do you rehearse scenes in advance, or do you prefer to approach them on the day of shooting?
Harold Perrineau: You know, sometimes, and it depends on everyone’s schedule, you just might not have the time to do that. But what I thought was great with this cast, and a lot of them are younger actors, they asked if we could like go to a community center — COVID made the choices limited — and talk about some scenes and practice lines. So, we spent some time off-camera on our own time, investing in the story and each other.
You don’t always get that. Not just with time being an issue, you don’t always get actors that want to do that, but the actors on this show were all willing to do that. We didn’t do any of the stunt stuff, obviously, but we went after the emotional core of the characters. Then you can add on the peripheral stuff after that. Getting to the essence of what was going on was important, and we were all able to do that, oftentimes, off-set.
