Harold Perrineau Talks Boyd’s Struggles and Season 3 of FROM

Have you picked your jaw off the floor yet?

The third season of FROM began with a decisively devastating hour as the town tried to pick up the pieces from the pain and despair they’d recently endured, only to be thrust back into a new, terrifying nightmare.

The ending will be talked about all season long, as it changes the landscape of the series forever. And we had to speak to series star Harold Perrineau about all of it.

Boyd Stevens continues to be the town’s leader, stepping up whenever possible and keeping calm in an increasingly frustrating and hostile environment.

With old, reliable threats and new ones emerging, this looks like another season of creepiness, terror, and fascination.

The talented and effortlessly charming Perrineau breaks down the episode for us and looks ahead to what we can expect in this rich, engaging conversation.

Check out the interview below!

Coming off of everything that happens in season two, when we meet Boyd in season three, where is he at mentally?

So, at the end of season two, Boyd is at a place; look, he’s still stressed. He’s still stuck in a town, but he feels like at least he’s gotten one little victory, or maybe two victories.

He knows that now he can affect the monsters, in some way kill them, and he’s destroyed this music box that’s just taunting them in their sleep and everything. So we’ll pick up season three directly after that. He feels like I got one. I don’t think he’s having a party, but he’s feeling the success of it.

When I finished watching the end of season two, and then it came up again in the premiere here, I wrote down in my notes, “What is Boyd’s breaking point? Does Boyd have a breaking point?” because there’s a lot of talk about that, especially amongst the monsters.

So now that I’m talking to you, I’m like, “Let me ask Harold.” Do you think Boyd has a breaking point?

I’m going to tell you, I think Boyd is into this conflict like he was into the military. And quite often, in those places, it is either I win, or you win, but that’s how it goes. Either I’m dead, or you’re dead. And I don’t know if there’s a breaking point, but I know they’re pushing all of it. I know that he’ll keep fighting.

That being said, I also know that our writer, John Griffin, is crazy. And so, he could write something, then I go, “Oh, yeah, yeah, that’ll break him. That’ll break him.” But I’d like to think there is no breaking point, that they would literally have to obliterate him. That’s what I think.

I tend to agree. I think if he had one, he might’ve already reached it by now, so I feel the same; unless he’s not there, what could happen?

Especially after the first episode, I mean, that literally, technically, that should be enough. That should be enough to be like, “You know what? You guys win. I’m just going to tap out.” But he doesn’t.

Time is a very nebulous concept in this world, but what do you think season one Boyd would think of season three Boyd? Going through seasons one and two, what would he think about where he is now with everything that’s happened and where things could go?

The thing that’s really interesting, and you’re right, is that net time is really nebulous; we don’t talk about it. But it actually hasn’t been that much time. The family shows up, Tabitha and Jim show up, and it all goes crazy. They had had a hundred and something days of no incidents.

And since that family’s been there, it hasn’t stopped.

So, I think season one Boyd would feel like, for season three Boyd, “Oh, my God, is it still going on? Are we ever going to get another break? Because this is crazy. We had a little break before and nothing right now.”

And so I think in season three, Boyd is frustrated. He’s about to explode, literally. Just explode into a pile of bones and blood and splatter on the floor. It’s at full capacity. I don’t think he was at full capacity in season one, but he’s full up right now.

Yeah.

That’s how I feel about it.

Father Khatri continues to appear. I loved when Boyd asked, “I saw this version of Abby that wasn’t really her, so who are you?” He’s asking deep and pertinent questions, but will he continue to grapple with seeing Father Khatri and him asking those questions that maybe he’s afraid to ask himself?

Yeah, I think so. There are a lot of questions that he keeps asking, and they wind up being questions that he’s going to have to grapple with his own compassion and humanity. There are questions this season that he has to answer. There are things he’s going to have to do this season he would never have done before.

So the answer is those things are going to keep coming up. And yeah, the answer is he’s going to have to keep answering those questions because the stuff that’s about to go down…nobody should have to make these choices.

I understand.

But they do.

Now that you’ve played Boyd for a while, you’ve seen different versions of him. And I like to think as characters continue to grow, you as an actor would continue to grow into the character more. What did you learn about Boyd this season that you didn’t know before?

Let’s see. I didn’t know that he was as resilient as he is. He has been shocked. He’s been stuck in a cave, he’s been slashed, he’s been mentally tormented. And while I thought he was tough, I didn’t know he was this tough.

And so, as an actor, it keeps making me ask the question, “What makes a person be that tough, that dogged like you won’t break me? Where does that come from? What does he know? What does he know about himself that he keeps going, and I’m going to keep coming forward?”

It makes me ask those questions because me, Harold, like I said, after this first episode, I’d have been like, “Y’all won. That’s enough. I don’t want to do this anymore.” But Boyd is not that guy. So it makes me keep asking the question, “Who is this person? Who do you have to be? What are the circumstances?”

I have to keep adding new things to who he is. John writes new things about his past and his military service all the time. And so that stuff is in there as well. It’s really fun stuff to keep asking.

We have to talk about the end of the episode, as you’ve brought it up. I gasped when I first saw it because I was not expecting it. The monsters really appear to be getting more diabolical and powerful. And then, it ends with Tian Chen being mutilated right in front of Boyd.  

Talk to me about what this will do to Boyd and the town at large. Obviously, without spoilers. But something like this, such a profound loss, how that’s going to reverberate throughout the town?

Yeah. I’ve been saying to people the whole time, people who have seen it or haven’t seen it, it’s heartbreaking. It’s heavy and heartbreaking for Boyd and the town. We love Tian Chen. We love her. It is heartbreaking all around.

The effects of the reverberation through the town are something that they’re going to have to live with until the next horrible thing happens.

Unfortunately, right?

And that’s the piece that’s really wild. You know what I mean? It’s like, “Ooh, this is terrible. Wait, what’s happening?” So yeah, it’s a heartbreaking season. It’s dark.

Yeah.

It’s really dark.

Yeah. I was writing bleak in my notes. “Bleak. Everything’s so bleak.”

Bleak is a great way to feel that.

You were just saying that because everything happens so fast, you guys don’t even really get much time to grieve many of these losses, which adds to the stress and everything else on top of it.

Right. Like I said, he’s combustible.

One of the things that I liked in the premiere was that we got to see Boyd with different people. He’s with Donna, he’s with Ethan, he’s with Ellis. He’s all over the place. And that’s one of the things I enjoy most about Boyd.

But how do you think he’s able to put one hat on, take one hat off, because he’s a sheriff one second, he’s a father, and the next second he’s a friend? How is he able to do all of that?

I’ve said this about Boyd since the beginning of the show: he’s a man of service. He really wants to help. He’s there to put himself in front of the bullet for you if that’s what he has to do. But he’s a man of service.

And I think he just has to keep pivoting and finding a way of, “How do I find a way to talk to this kid who’s wildly disappointed? How do I then go talk to Donna, and while I’m frustrated, she’s frustrated? We’re both a real force, so how do we find a place where we still have to work together?

How do I talk to my son, my de facto son, or any of the people you have to talk to?” And there are going to be some new interactions that we’re going to see from Boyd, which are even more hats. And I think at the end of the day, it’s about being of service; he’s trying to serve the best way he can.

He’s not always right; he’s not even always good at it. He fumbles the ball a number of times, but he keeps trying.

One of my favorite relationships with Boyd is between Boyd and Ellis. How will that change now that he’s preparing to be a father? Because their relationship has been so up and down.

Yeah. And that’s just it. He’s about to be a father. And Ellis feels the pressure of it, and everyone around him feels the pressure of it. So he and his dad have to, again, create a new relationship. When you’re young, it’s just you and your parents; they’re up there on that pedestal. Like it or not, but they’re there.

When you have a kid, you’re like, “Oh, I don’t really have time for that right now,” because I have another human being I have to deal with. From the beginning, I didn’t have time to deal with your pedestal stuff.

So that’s going to change their relationship quite a bit because Ellis had, forgive my language, Ellis has got shit to do now. He really does.

Can you tease for us, the FROMily, what we should expect? What can we hope for? What should we be excited to see?

I’m going to steal your word. We should expect that season three will be bleak, but we should also expect that it’s exciting and never rests. We are going to be together for ten weeks. I’m going to be there, you guys. We’re going to tweet and talk. It’s not going to be a restful ten weeks, but we are going to do it.

We’re going to do it together. That’s what everybody should expect. I want to be there with the audience, the cast, our crew, and everybody who watches it for the next ten weeks while we sort through the madness of what’s happening on FROM.

Okay. We’ll be there for each other. I like it. I’ll see you on Twitter. I’ll be there.

Fantastic.

***This interview has been edited for length and clarity.***

You can watch FROM on Sundays at 9/8c on MGM+.