Post Summary
“From” is a stunning original horror series from John Griffin, now on its fourth season at MGM+ (and the most-watched series in MGM+ history). Its newest season sees Sophia, played by Julia Doyle, enter the town in a startling car wreck. MGM+ has been a streaming home to a growing number of high-profile original horror series, including the Stephen King series “Chapelwaite” (loosely based on “Jerusalem’s Lot”) and “The Institute”. It’s also home to a variety of other genres, including the upcoming superhero Noir-hybrid “Spider-Noir,” or the long-running crime drama “Godfather of Harlem”.
“From” airs Sundays at 9:00 pm ET/PT on MGM+, which you can find via Prime Video.
The Mysterious Sophia, The Town’s Latest Resident
One of the best shows on television also features one of the worst towns to get stuck in. A stunner of a horror series now going into its fourth season on MGM+, “From” centers on a community stuck in a mysterious small town, beset by terrors. Most of the townsfolk become stranded there while an ordinary drive is interrupted by a tree in the road, and each night sees the emergence of human-looking monsters on a vicious hunt to kill the townsfolk. While talismans keep the viscous humanoid monsters out, last season saw the emergence of a mysterious and clearly deadly new threat in the Man in Yellow (Douglas E. Hughes), with unnerving strength, visible bloodlust, and who killed Jim Matthews (Eion Bailey) at the end of Season 3.
Season 4 begins with a bang, as a car comes careening into the town, crashing into the Sheriff’s station. Driving the car is a passed-out pastor, and next to him is Sophia (Julia Doyle), screaming for someone to help her father. As she is removed from the car and he’s freed and moved into medical care, the consistently praying Sophia endears herself to the townsfolk. By the end of Season 4’s first episode, “The Arrival,” we discover that Sophia isn’t the priest’s daughter at all: she’s the Man in Yellow, who supernaturally transformed into her form to insidiously trick the town and drive them apart. That Hashtag Show’s Jeff Ewing sat down with the menacing new addition, Julia Doyle, to discuss her mysterious character.
Drawing From Childhood To Craft Serious Scares
There’s a lot of mystery around the Man in Yellow. Is he the thing the townsfolk made a deal with all those years ago? What does he want? And he speaks in such an inevitable, cyclical way… is his perception beyond time, or how far back does he go? There’s almost more mystery behind his surprising new form, Sophia. What’s she all about? “She is not who she says she is,” Julia Doyle tells us, “lots of deception, and other evil stuff.” Evil, deceptive stuff is accurate… but how did she build such a chilling character?
“I immediately go back to me sharing a bedroom with my sister, and her being like, ‘it’s your turn to turn off the lights in the bedroom,’ and I’m like, ‘well, your bed is closer to the bed, to the light switch.’ She was like, ‘No, it’s your turn,’ and then there were moments growing up where, obviously, I’m the youngest so words and physicality were never what I was good at, or my strong suit compared to my older siblings.”
What’s a girl to do? Learn to unsettle, fast. “There were moments when we would just out-creep each other,” she tells me. “We’d have scare contests about who could unsettle the other person, and it would be one of those things where she’s like, ‘Julia, you’re being…. stop it, I don’t even believe you! And she’s like, ‘okay, fine, I’ll go turn up the lights.'”
That personal history, more than any other inspiration, was her source for building a terrifying character. “I don’t want to use other performances too much, because I want to create my own performance,” she notes, “but also, I want to make sure my performance isn’t bland because it’s a bunch of performances brought together that makes it seem basic.”
Sweat was Julia’s Biggest Nemesis in Season 4, Episode 1’s Biggest Scene
At the end of Season 4’s first episode sees Sophia break her meek character’s visage, as she approaches the bed-ridden priest she rode in with, revealing her true intentions. We asked what that final, disturbing scene is like. “Very fun,” she says. “Also, I remember it was so, so hot that day. It was so sweltering hot that I remember just being in that room, and every 5 seconds, I’d be like, ‘okay, wait, can we get makeup,’ ‘fix your sweat,’ you know?”
That pivotal scene was also structured in a way that allowed active engagement from director Jack Bender, she adds. “It was also very nice, since it was chopped up in between flashbacks, it was really nice to have that freedom while I was filming it. Jack, the director, was being like, ‘Okay, now do it again. Now do it like this,’ as I was acting, so he was fully talking to me while I was acting, and it was nice.” It was a welcome but atypical experience, she added. “Normally, when you’re doing a scene, you’re fully in it with the other person, there’s no one else talking to you, but it was nice to have that energy on set while I was doing that specific scene.”
As for what she’d like to see for Sophia going forward? “I want her to do more physical stuff,” she says. “And also, I’d like for there to be water in the pool… or it doesn’t have to be water, I just feel like something with the pool would be fun.” I wouldn’t trust any pool in that town, but let’s see if Season 4 finds that pool filled with anything other than blood or bodies. In the meantime, whatever Sophia has planned for the town’s residents, it can’t be good for them… but it will sure be fun to watch.
About “FROM”
“From” follows a small town full of stranded strangers, each ending up in an off-the-map town that’s disconnected from our world. While it looks like an ordinary small town, each night finds the town plagued by powerful, murderous humanoid monsters, kept at bay by mysterious talismans. Town sheriff and de facto leader is Boyd Stevens (played by Harold Perrineau), who works with others to hopefully keep the town safe, and hopefully someday help them get home.
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