Episode after episode, the townspeople in the MGM+ show From are constantly on edge, stressed by the evil that emerges every night and by the repeated crushing of their hopes of escape. Yet, amid the chaos and carnage, a unique relationship is unfolding between longtime resident Victor (Scott McCord) and his father, Henry (Robert Joy), who joined the group of trapped residents last season.
We spoke with Scott McCord and Robert Joy about their characters’ strange father-son dynamic and the events so far in Season 4.
HGL: Victor and Henry have the weirdest, most wonderful father-son relationship in From. Did that chemistry and dynamic come naturally?
Robert Joy: I’m going to say yes, it came very naturally. The very first scene we did together, I can’t remember exactly what it was, a meeting, I think, our reunion, we had not known each other before. We made it a habit of meeting before the shoot day. You don’t get a lot of rehearsal on the day, so we created our own rehearsal off-set.
We’d go over the material and find stuff we wouldn’t have found otherwise. The gift was that the writing suggested that kind of exploration, and the pleasure was to explore even before we got to the set, so we’d get more juice out of it than we would have otherwise.
Scott McCord: And I get to be on the other side of this crafty veteran, so that kind of makes it super special.
HGL: There are a lot of things going on in From Season 4. How do you think your characters are handling everything, especially regarding Miranda?
Robert Joy: I don’t think Henry handles it very well. His brain has been toyed with; that’s a big enough puzzle to be dealing with. Then to have Boyd tell him this stuff about Miranda, saying she wasn’t who I thought she was, that was too much; he kind of boils over.
In a funny way, whereas I start the season wanting to be a great dad, I think Victor has to father me in a way. Victor has to protect me by the end of it; the whole dynamic shifts.
Scott McCord: I think because of what’s happening to Henry, it’s definitely setting Victor on his path, his greater purpose to finally step up and say we have to find The Man in Yellow. This is for Henry, this is for Ethan, this is for everyone, but that draws him to Tabitha, and I think, in a very maternal way, for that help and guidance that he’s now not getting.
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Robert Joy: So he’s looking for a mother figure?
Scott McCord: I think in that way, yeah. As we get into Episode 7 and go out to the graveyard, I finally ask her, “Are you my mother?” Still processing this all, of course, but I think that, from where we left off in the last season, everything Henry gave Victor to say I’m your father, we’re going to get through this together, we’re going to do this, it’s all fallen apart so quickly. It’s been compounded by the fact that then Boyd (Harold Perrineau) says, “Oh, and by the way…”
Robert Joy: It seems so hopeful at the beginning of the season, and it just gets all torn apart. I’m so angry with Sophie (Julia Doyle) that I hope the audience is, too.
HGL: What has surprised you most in Season 4 of From?
Robert Joy: I had no idea we were going to go where we went. I thought, as much as I was amazed at the scene where Henry plays the piano and tries to help his son get over the fact that The Man in Yellow ate his mother, and to move on from that, I could imagine something like that happening.
But when Sophia gets involved and poisons my brain with her blood, I didn’t see that coming at all. I was totally shocked and, as an actor, delighted. I mean, where is an actor going to get the chance to play something like that?
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Scott McCord: Just to add to that, I would say that, you know, from watching the show, I don’t even theorize anymore, because then John drops a script and it ends up going in another direction. To me, it’s constant surprises, and that’s for every storyline. I’ve loved Julie’s storyline this season, with the storywalking, tons of surprises there, everything that’s been happening all along.
But what I would say was what I didn’t see coming was that I never thought we’d see Victor in another reality. That was something that really shook me to my core. We just go from script to script; of course, we never know our arc, never given a heads-up about anything in the season.
You can stream From on MGM+.
If anything happens to Victor, I won’t be able to forgive the show.