Victoria Pedretti Takes the Stage
Actor Victoria Pedretti spoke to L'OFFICIEL about going from scream queen in Netflix shows like You and The Haunting of Hill House to stage queen in An Enemy of the People, her Broadway debut opposite Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CELESTE SLOMAN
STYLED BY YAEL QUINT
Victoria Pedretti, 29, is in the midst of her Broadway debut as Petra Stockmann—the daughter of a doctor villainized by his small Norwegian town—in Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, opposite Jeremy Strong (Succession) and Michael Imperioli (The White Lotus). The play began its run in March, and ends its run June 23.
Young but experienced, Pedretti, who studied theater at Carnegie Mellon, is beyond the precipice of influence. She was one of many young talents in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), which included Margaret Qualley, Austin Butler, and Sydney Sweeney. Her work in Netflix’s You and The Haunting of Hill House was vital to television’s horror renaissance, which reintroduced the idea that horror can be simultaneously scary, entertaining, and a thoughtful unpacking of the complex human condition. Now, she's taken her career from scream queen to stage queen, which is where she always wanted to be.
Pedretti spoke to L’OFFICIEL about theater, process, style, self-care, and her favorite place in New York City (spoiler alert: it's her apartment).
L’OFFICIEL: How did you land the role as Petra in An Enemy of the People?
VICTORIA PEDRETTI: I started off auditioning with a tape in L.A. and then I came to New York and auditioned in person. I had two rounds of auditions before I was told I got the part. I hadn’t performed on stage for a really long time, so it was really... That in and of itself was a challenge. Then actually doing the show was a whole other thing. It's been tricky doing the same thing every night for months now.
L’O: It’s physically demanding work. Is it rewarding, though?
VP: I get the opportunity to practice every night. I ask myself how I can do better next time? I have moments of inspiration during the show, and I try to play with those ideas as it goes along. It changes so much to the point where when I think about what I did at the beginning, it's confusing to me how I made the decisions I made. It just grows so much.
L’O: The Circle in the Square Theater is so small and it's quite intimate. Do you enjoy that?
VP: It's very challenging. It's very challenging to focus when you're surrounded by faces. The audience is quite lit in my production as well. So I'm really able to see them looking out at us and just along the rim of this stage looking up at us. And at first that was really overwhelming and distracting, but then that challenge became a call to just drive my focus deeper into the story and the circumstances of the character.
L’O: The theater is so small that you can hear people rummaging through their bags or taking a drink. Do you have to get so deep in character that you don't even register stuff like that?
VP: Sometimes I don't register it. Sometimes I can definitely hear it. I can't turn off my... My senses are kind of trying to be heightened to everything around me 'cause I want to be responsive to what's going on on stage, but at the same time I don't want to respond to things I'm not supposed to. It's a weird balancing act. I think just really locking in on one another is one of our main ways of trying to work around that or trying to not become distracted by the people and the sounds around us. I mean, honestly, I've been really surprised at how disrespectful some of the audiences can be. Especially when they've spent so much money and they took the time to come there. And the fact that they will speak at an almost normal level during the action of the show, is very surprising to me.
L’O: I yelled at a person to put their phone away when I saw the show.
VP: Put your phone away, man. When we're in these intense one-on-one scenes or dialogue heavy scenes, where you really need to follow what's being said. I'm really surprised.
L’O: Have you learned anything from working with Mike Imperioli and Jeremy Strong?
VP: Absolutely. They're very different kinds of actors. I really love the relationship that I've been able to build with both of them. The way they function on a professional level is quite different. There's nobody checking your work as an actor, right? Everybody has their own process and they have to commit fully to it. And it can change because day to day we come in with very different energy, we just kind of have to meet the story. Being able to watch and observe and learn from them has been incredible. I don’t have anything specific. For some reason, it just doesn't feel right to share that.
"You have to be pretty far into your career, unless you come from money or something, before you can be selective in the kind of work that you're doing."
L’O: Is your acting process very personal?
VP: It's very personal. I don't have any interest in getting anybody's feedback on it, either, or having them in any way have to think about that when they're watching my work. You don't want to know how the sausage is made, just eat the sausage. Don't worry about it! That's part of the mystery. It’s supposed to be a magic trick. We're asking people to involve themselves in a story about a people living in a community in Norway 1882.
L’O: Did you do the stage while you were in school? Is that the last time you did it?
VP: Yes. I studied theater and acting in college and the bulk of what we were doing was live performance theater. Yeah.
L’O: Did you always dream of Broadway or were you heading in a direction of film and television?
VP: My intention was to work in theater. I was very surprised that I ended up finding work in film and television.
L’O: For a few years, you did horror TV shows with You and The Haunting of Hill House. Was that also surprising for you to go into that genre?
VP: Yes, I don't even really enjoy horror myself [laughs]. I don't like being scared.
L’O: Is there something that attracts you to playing characters within that genre, even if it's not something you necessarily enjoy yourself?
VP: No, it's just kind of where I found work. You have to be pretty far into your career, unless you come from money or something, before you can be selective in the kind of work that you're doing. You need to work. You need to make a living.
L’O: Absolutely. And even once you get there, especially in entertainment, it's still a continuous uphill battle. What do you like to watch in your free time?
VP: I really love theater. I really love great theater. I like things that are experimental. But then I also, in the same way I can't say what kind of food I like the most, I just like good food. I can't really say what kind of films or television I like. I just like good ones. It's the truth 'cause even within horror, if something's really exceptional, for instance, like Hill House, it kind of transcends genre. It's just good. It's just human. It's touching. I really do like documentaries. I enjoy learning that way. What do I like to watch? Yeah, good shit.
L’O: Good shit, and then just the trashiest reality for me.
VP: Yeah, but that can be good. I don't know, I can be really touched watching those. It can be a really interesting in terms of sociology and how many of us are socialized and engaging in romance.
L’O: How do you unwind after a long day on set or after a show?
VP: Nowadays just the train ride home can be its own kind of wind down.
L’O: What's your favorite place in New York?
VP: Right now, my apartment. I just like creating a home here. It's really exciting to me. I'm very happy to be back. Yeah, it's been very soul feeding, if that makes sense. Nourishing for the soul.
