Elizabeth Saunders and Scott McCord, a FROM S2 interview

Elizabeth Saunders stars as Donna in the MGM+ horror series, FROM, and Scott McCord stars as Victor. They’re both back in season 2, and we got to ask them about their characters.

Here’s the transcript of our chat. For the most part, it’s transcribed word for word, with minor edits made to improve readability.

However, if you also want to watch the interview, you can! It’s embedded below for your viewing pleasure.

1428 Elm: I will start with, I guess you, Elizabeth. Well, both of you. This is kind of going to revolve around both of you and the dichotomy of your characters. But in Elizabeth’s case, Donna is both salty and sweet. She can be very no-nonsense and matter-of-fact but also extremely tender and sensitive to others. How do you accomplish that?

Elizabeth Saunders: Well, I’m like that in real…no. (laughing) It’s an exaggerated version, but I think I have that in me…those two aspects are two ends of me. Also, the way that John has written it, like it’s clear as a bell, you know where we’re going with Donna with this person and where we’re going with that. And a lot of it is based on her reactions to the circumstances and the behavior of the other individual.

One thing I notice about Donna, like even if she’s in a bad headspace, she can monitor who’s getting what based on what they’re handing to her. Like with Fatima (played by Pegah Ghafoori) there’s a really warm relationship there. Same with Victor. She has fond feelings of Victor. But if either of them did something truly untenable, she’d speak up about it. She wouldn’t be like, “Oo, I’ll just let that slip.”

1428 Elm: No she wouldn’t…she would definitely…

Elizabeth Saunders: And I’ve kind of had practice as a mom, so, you know, you have to, over time, learn to be a bit of those things.

1428 Elm: Okay, Scott, your turn. So, at first, Victor comes off as a little creepy in season 1, but as that season progressed, and now into season 2, we see he’s really complex. He’s both young and wise, but there are times when we see that childlike vulnerability, which you portrayed so beautifully in the scene with Jade and the violin and you’re on top of Victor’s mom’s car. How do you prepare yourself to bring that…all of Victor to life.

McCord: Wow. Great question. Well, you know, there’s…I think that all of us as actors, we’re all just generally tapped to our inner child, you know, and we (chuckling) carry that throughout life. And it’s easy for me to go there, I think, you know, the little boy wants to go out and run around and play all the time. So I think that’s part of it.

I think also too for this beautiful storyline that John Griffin, the creator, he wrote that episode and all the episodes of this coming season. He gave me such a great journey this season to go out and explore all that sort of stuff. And it’s a wonderful, beautiful, challenge, you know? Because, yeah, it has so much to do with Victor’s past and what happened to him. And I think for whatever reason, that’s the stuff that I started with when I was building the character back in season 1. John had told me about how he (Victor) was left there as a child and survived there on his own. So part of that too comes from having worked on it for that long and with that seed of that idea.

So by the time that we arrived to that scene that you’re describing, I was terrified. (Laughs) But in the best way to go there. Because I also knew that was the beginning of something else for Victor as well. All these memories are coming up for him, you know. And because, I want to say this, I think it has to do with the only love that he has ever known and felt and experienced, right? So that was a beautiful thing —and terrifying thing— to explore.

See Elizabeth Saunders and Scott McCord in FROM season 2, now streaming on MGM+. New episodes drop on Sundays through June 25.

What would you have asked Elizabeth Saunders and Scott McCord? Would you want to know something about their characters in From? Or would you want to know something about the series in general? Leave a comment and let us know!