We have seen Harold Perrineau as a paraplegic narrator in the HBO drama ‘Oz’ and as Michael Dawson the tragic father and frustrated artist in the historical ‘Lost’. Now, he has just premiered as the protagonist of ‘From’, the new Universal + series (Sundays, 8:30pm), where he plays the sheriff of a mysterious town that catches everyone who enters and where its residents struggle to survive threats of the forest and its terrifying creatures. We spoke with the American actor through Zoom.
You have become a leading character in thriller and horror movies. But, what has been your personal relationship with these genres? Do you like these stories?
I personally don’t like horror movies, they’re not my favourites, but suspense and thrillers interest me a lot, because of the way people respond to their own fears and how they react when things are really desperate. They make good and bad decisions, they go from top to bottom, from bottom to back and that’s interesting to see. I always put myself in that position. What would I do? What do I do if my plane is going to crash? Do I like to be part of this? Or how do I survive? I always ask myself those questions.
How would you describe your character, Sheriff Boyd Stevens in ‘From’?
It’s nonsense, like all his life he has been tortured, stalked by monsters and he really wants to protect everyone. I think, what makes him a tough man is that he has a heart of gold and does the best he can to keep his community safe from him. He wants to save everyone he can, and maybe he doesn’t, but that’s who he is, a man of service, he wants to serve his community to the best of his abilities.
How has your experience been working with some producers of ‘Lost’ like Jack Bender? Do you think the series have similarities with the Stephen King universe?
First I love working with them, I know what they do, I know how hard they work, I know their stories are always going to be good and that’s why I trust them a lot. In terms of similarities, there are many: we are far away in a place that is not understood, we have no way out, the things that happen do not make sense, but both have different aspects. I think that’s a constant thing in horror territory with real monsters, I think there’s a difference from those kinds of movies or series. But the similarities are that we are always talking about human beings and people and that makes the series very good. When you get involved or empathize with two or three characters, that makes it more fun and entertaining, it makes you want to keep watching and I think the producers know how to do that. Stephen King has always been a good writer, what he writes is not only terrifying things on the outside but also on the inside of people and that will always be interesting to exploit.
How much did the fact that they recorded in the pandemic make it difficult or added?
It will sound strange, but the pandemic ended up being very useful in much of what we were struggling with in quarantine: being locked up with regulations, knowing what the virus was, that you didn’t know what it was going to do to you, how it was going to affect you. It was all new to figure out and that transferred pretty easily to the front, because that’s exactly what we do on the show, we’re on lockdown, there’s a monster outside, we don’t get it at all. We just know that it’s scary and the way people react to it is different. Some say: let’s lock ourselves in and others say we have the right not to lock ourselves in, we have freedom and well this way these two groups together have to face the threat that is outside. And so I think it was quite easy because of the pandemic to jump right into the story.
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