Ellis Stevens has had a rough go of it in FROM Season 3.
When the season began, he and his wife Fatima were in a good place as recent newlyweds expecting their first child, but things have gone from bad to worse, as they typically do in FROM land.
After learning they weren’t expecting as previously thought, Fatima continued to believe something was growing inside her, and her mood swings culminated in her stabbing Tillie during FROM Season 3 Episode 7.
Ellis and his father Boyd temporarily took Fatima out of town, but unbeknownst to them, Elgin took her to a secret underground room, where he’s housing her thanks to the apparition he’s been seeing all season.
That led to a missing Fatima during FROM Season 3 Episode 9 and a devastated Ellis.
As previously stated, it’s been quite the journey for Ellis, who not only fretted about his missing wife during the hour but also saw him learning about his father’s illness for the first time.
It’s an emotional hour on top of what’s been an emotional season for the younger Stevens, and we were lucky to spend some time with the always-charming Corteon Moore to talk about it all.
Check it out below FROM fanatics!
I wanted to go back an episode or so, as we didn’t get to see the fallout from Ellis’s reaction after he walks into the shed and sees Tillie dead and everything that happened with Fatima.
So, how do you think he reacted in the aftermath, and what do you think his first thoughts were when he walked in there?
Oh, God. It was so long ago, and I’m trying to remember. I feel like I worked on something on my own that would kind of map this whole question out, and I remember it mostly switching into fight or flight. It’s kind of in that moment.
Especially after everything these two characters have been through, everything that went down with his mom, and just the rising tensions in the town, it was an immediate thing of just like, we got to go, or we got to do something. It’s just you and I.
At that moment, his immediate reaction was obviously panicked; he was heartbroken, especially because of Tillie’s last conversation with him, which was really sweet. It took a sweet old lady who just really reached out to a stranger for no reason, and now there she is, dead with a pair of shears in her chest.
I think it was just an immediate panic heartbreak, but really, it was like, and I think he learns a lot of this from Boyd, but it doesn’t matter. I’m going to protect my family. That’s it. So, whatever we got to do, we got a pack, we got to go to the woods, we got to go the shed, we got to find somewhere else to go to.
But you and I are getting out of this, and that’s all that matters.
Ellis has been a little bit all over the place, but I think one thing he’s managed to do is be patient. He’s been a very patient person this season.
Trying to.
I think he has. Well, maybe you disagree with this, but how do you think he’s been able to have that patience? How has he been able to keep his head on straight with everything?
I don’t know. Look, it’s a personal thing for me. I remember for most of the season, even after they found out that Fatima was not pregnant, I was holding on to this idea that Ellis would be a dad.
And even in the aftermath of that, it’s not an easy thing to come to terms with the fact that you’re not going to be a father regardless of where you are. I can only imagine thinking you’re going to be a parent and then thinking you’re not going to be a parent. That’s a really devastating idea to bear.
So, I honestly think he’s been compartmentalizing this whole season and not absorbing much information. He’s dealing with what he can, whichever task is at hand, but nothing is actually fully hitting him until, I think, the very, very end.
And even at that point, I don’t think we ever really see him come fully to terms with anything that’s happened in this season; just simply too much. He’s still dealing with the loss of his mom, although he’s made some strides with that.
He’s still dealing with everything that happened when he was stabbed, and the blood transfusion, and things are getting crazy, and everything with the food, it’s just way, way too much. So, I think this patience is just coming from a place of him just trying to keep anything together.
Don’t be too reactionary; don’t get too upset. Try to speak your mind, but everybody stop. Just stop. Don’t tell me anything bad. Don’t do anything bad. And if you do something bad, I will try and find a quick solution because we need this done.
I wish I could say he was more patient and more of a forgiving person, but I don’t really think he is. I honestly think he’s overwhelmed and trying to make do and not lose his mind.
Trying to get from A to B every day.
Ellis didn’t know he was in the dark about Boyd’s health until episode nine. How does he handle that news internally? Is it something he’s even able to process in the moment with everything going on, or is it something he hears and has to move on?
No, you put it well in terms of whether or not he’s able to process it in the moment.
It’s at this moment, and when we find out there’s an ultrasound, the two moments where Ellis is fully in the moment and allowing himself to retrieve this new information because, in a way, those are two very life-changing pieces of information.
When he found out that he was going to be a dad last season, he went through this whole thing. Then the ultrasound came in, and that was the first time they could figure out what was going on.And then now you fast-forward to Boyd telling him about his Parkinson’s.
And that’s like, you can’t escape that. You’re stuck in the sheriff’s station. The sun is down. It’s just you and your dad. And circumstances aside, that’s quality time you get with your family in this place, and he tells you something so heartbreaking. I know in the beginning he’s really upset that he didn’t tell him.
He’s upset that Kenny knew. Are you kidding me? That’s not your kid. And that’s something that still needs to be explored as to why Boyd treats Kenny like a son all the time.
But, I think it was more so just another thing that was stacking up on Ellis’s plate, but at the end of the day, he’s so focused on, again, just being there for his family and what are you going to do, really, what are you going to do?
You have to get out of this town and be there for your family, and then that’s it.
There’s nothing, but being angry at anybody or being angry at your own dad for not telling you something so sad is honestly probably the best-case scenario up until this moment because he was dealing with the whole baby thing and the whole Fatima thing.
Of course, he couldn’t take on that much more stress. I think it’s definitely going to change the relationship moving forward and the idea of time being more precious between the two of them and being able to truly be there for one another, especially after experiencing such shared traumas.
It will be interesting to watch them grow as father and son after that.
On a scale of one to suspicious, how suspicious is Ellis of Elgin as they’re out in the woods in this episode, and what can you tease about what we’ll see when we head into the finale?
Yo. Elgin was tripping in the woods. I remember when I first read the script, I was like, “This is really suspicious.” As soon as I saw how Nathan [D. Simmons] was playing it too, and Elgin was interacting with me, I was like, “What the hell is going on?”
And I didn’t know because we didn’t have the next episodes available to us yet. So, one too suspicious, I’d give him a trillion levels. Whatever is past the most suspicious you could possibly be. I think he’s definitely up to something crazy, and Ellis is not stupid or dumb. So he’s about to pop out to do something soon.
Really soon, because that’s my wife.
***This interview has been edited for length and clarity.***
You can watch FROM on Sundays at 9/8c on MGM+.
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