SPOILER WARNING: If you haven’t watched the FROM Season 4 premiere and met the real Sophia (Julia Doyle) yet, now might be a good time to back out of this interview…
Julia Doyle has entered FROM Season 4 with a bang—or, technically, a crash. And, aside from getting to play a character who’s in character herself, hiding her actual identity as that Big Bad, Doyle had plenty of good reasons to enjoy coming to FROMville. Asked what was particularly exciting for her in joining the MGM+ series, she told us she “was really excited to be on a set where it’s fully there. I was familiar with the show ahead of time, and I knew that..the town is actually a town. So, I remember that’s one thing in particular that I was so excited [about], to just be in a place that has so many details, and you can look to the ceiling, and the ceiling is in character too, but it’s not just full of lights” like on a regular set.
When you’re actually in town, you get to explore its mysteries. “I watched the first season two years before I actually got the audition,” Doyle told us, “and as soon as I got to set, [I was] automatically looking at all the details, trying to see like, ‘okay, is this actually a thing, or did they just write that to have something in the background?'” Of course, nothing about Sophia is just background because she isn’t what she seems at all. In fact, we’re still honestly not sure what to call the character: Man in Yellow? Sophia? Some…entity that’s simultaneously both but also neither? Regardless, when asked for any possible teases about the character’s overall FROM Season 4 journey, Doyle warned us of “lots of tricks up the sleeve.”
Could one of those tricks have anything to do with the choice of victim (a pastor) and disguise (a very pious teen girl, who keeps quoting lines of scripture and even prays with Kenny)? “Well, I can’t say for certain because I didn’t write it,” Doyle told us. However, her thought is that, “obviously, if I’m sweet little girl…not only going through, like, a trauma, but also I come from a sheltered background, [then] I feel like that sort of…that gives me leeway.” So, “if I’m acting weird, or strange, or suspicious, then I could just be like, ‘oh, what? That’s just something I learned in church.’ Or…’it always says I’m going to see God.'” (Here, with the potential “Sophia” quotes, Doyle’s voice lifts to a very sweet, innocent pitch.) So, yes, “I feel like it was a good cover.”
With all that in mind, how did Doyle actually approach playing Sophia, knowing she’s also the Man in Yellow? With those two very different sides, did she think of it as two different people or one big, massive thing? “I remember I had that exact same thought,” she said. After booking the role, Doyle wondered, “‘wait…what am I actually thinking when I’m playing this character?’ And then, I thought back to my audition.” While auditioning for the role, she was given a note that was, essentially, “make sure you don’t show the evil side when you’re playing the innocent side.”
Therefore, as Sophia, “I was fully, you know, tapping into my own Catholic upbringing and, like, my own thoughts and fully thinking that my dad’s dead.” So, “after talking with my [acting] coach,” the advice was, “‘you are separate characters…when you’re acting as Sophia…fully tap into those emotions and, you know, think you’re that person.'” After all, “Man in Yellow isn’t thinking, ‘oh, I’m going to act as Man in Yellow and Sophia right now.'” Doyle concluded, “I fully locked into one character at a time. And then, if something did slip out, it slipped out naturally. And it wasn’t something [where] I was like, [in more evil voice] ‘now? Evil look.'”
Since we already have some experience with FROM‘s Man in Yellow, did Doyle collaborate with Douglas E. Hughes at all to keep the character consistent? “I didn’t have a talk with him beforehand, but I did meet him, which was really nice. And he’s lovely,” she told us. Like many viewers, she spent time “just rewatching…Season 3 Episode 10 over and over again.” Yes, she “was trying to, you know, match” the Man in Yellow we know so far.
“But then, also at the same time,” she was able to “realize that, that is, you know, one scene and one experience of that character, and that there’s many different sides.” That means she doesn’t “need to, like, copy frame by frame and make sure that I’m copying his face and doing exactly what he’s doing. Because I feel like, sometimes, that can hold you back.”
Since so many fans have been watching and rewatching the FROM Season 3 finale and picking apart everything that happens with the Man in Yellow, Doyle shared that she “kept on being like, ‘wait, like, I think there’s a scene I’m missing.’ Because obviously, I’m looking at something on the internet, too, to see if I’m…missing a clip. Because obviously, I’ve seen the show, but I’m like, everyone keeps editing that one clip. And I’m like, ‘that is just one scene. That’s so crazy that it’s just one scene.” Because Hughes “did such an amazing job…it just left such an impact that you’re like, ‘there has to be—that has to be pulled from…many different scenes.”
MORE: We loved the FROM Season 4 premiere.
Watch our full Julia Doyle interview here
What’s next for Sophia/the Man in Yellow? You’ll have to tune in to find out. Don’t miss Julia Doyle in FROM Season 4. New episodes air Sundays at 9pm ET/PT on MGM+.
