Victoria Pedretti

You may not recognize the name yet, but there is a great chance you will in the near future. Victoria Pedretti is an up-and-coming star who has already made some waves in her very short career and is looking to make an even bigger splash as the newly crowned “New Scream Queen.” So, who is Victoria Pedretti and just how did she earn that label?

VICTORIA PEDRETTI IS NOT ON INSTAGRAM OR SOCIAL MEDIA

One thing you probably won’t see from Victoria Pedretti is a big social media undertaking. The rising star does not actively maintain an Instagram account, although there is one out there that apparently she is the author of. And while she makes very rare appearances on social media, she recently made headlines when “she” posted a picture on her Instagram of a woman’s nipple.

The image was deleted shortly after and replaced with a picture of a hairy (apparently) male nipple. The caption on this one read, “This is intentional. Not hacked.” So, we are left to believe that the woman’s nipple that preceded the male nipple was done by a hacker. That being said, there are plenty of just regular posts on there.

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VICTORIA PEDRETTI WAS A STRUGGLING ACTRESS IN NEW YORK CITY

Looking back, though, Victoria Pedretti’s first desire was musicals, possibly a career on Broadway. But a failed audition for her high school musical changed her career trajectory. “I remember being in high school, not getting into the musical, being like, ‘Okay, well I guess I’ll do theater then.’ Boring, you know? There’s no song and dance! Where’s all the fun?” she explained to Collider.

What she found out was that theater was not boring and she eventually fell in love with it. The capper for her was when she was approached after a performance and was told, “‘That affected me.’ And I was like, ‘Shit, really?’ And that’s a really great feeling, you know? Being able to make that kind of impact, so it’s kind of addictive at that point.” 

It didn’t come quickly for Victoria Pedretti after she graduated college. She had moved to New York and was doing what all struggling wannabe actors did – audition. She says she was getting real close to nailing some big jobs but ultimately was passed on.

Although she didn’t get those early roles, she was not deterred and, in fact, liked her future. “I was like, ‘Damn, this is feeling good. Something’s working. People are responding.’ Again, I’m getting feedback. People are responding to it. Then, I’m like, ‘Okay, let’s just keep it going.’”

Her bright outlook eventually got her the big break she was looking for. It came on a Zoom call with Flanagan. “I had a Zoom-type call with Mike Flanagan. I was living in a walled-off section of a living room, and I took my meeting in that little room. And after that, I think he was trying to figure out how to get me cast.” If you watch even the first episode, you will see exactly what Mike Flanagan saw when he cast her.

SHE STARRED IN THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE

Victoria Pedretti has not been in the acting game long. In fact, her first jump into acting came in 2018 and it was for a project that would eventually help build her stock as a scream queen. Although Pedretti was part of two short films in 2014 (Sole, Uncovering Eden), 2018 saw her take a big leap when she was brought on board Mike Flanagan’s (Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep) Netflix horror series, The Haunting of Hill House.

The series was loosely based on the 1959 Shirley Jackson novel of the same name and carried the same amount of creeps and jitters as the Jackson novel.

The Haunting of Hill House covered 10 episodes and saw Victoria Pedretti portray an older Nell Crain. The story was told in numerous flashbacks and had Violet McGraw play the young Nell. While the series followed some of Jackson’s lead, Flanagan’s tale follows the Crain Family in flashback to 1992 when they arrived at Hill House with the idea to renovate it. They’ll then sell it so they can then have the money to build their own home, which is designed by Olivia Crain (Carla Gugino).

When the house flipping doesn’t go as planned and the family has to stay much longer than anticipated, the family begins to experience a number of paranormal events. The result is a tragic loss and the family has to flee the mansion. 29 years later, another tragedy brings the family back together and they, in turn, have to confront how their tragic time at Hill House has affected them.

Victoria Pedretti received rave reviews for her performance as Nell Crain. In fact, the entire series got rave reviews and even had Stephen King, a massive fan of Jackson’s novel, commenting via Twitter, “I don’t usually care for this kind of revisionism, but this is great. Close to a work of genius, really. I think Shirley Jackson would approve, but who knows for sure.”

The series even had acclaimed film director Quentin Tarantino telling The Jerusalem Post, “My favorite Netflix series, with no competition, is The Haunting of Hill House.” That is some high praise from some highly respectable auteurs.

SHE HAD A ROLE IN ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

The notice Victoria Pedretti gained from Hill House, believe it or not, was not what caught Tarantino’s eye when she auditioned for his 2019 film, Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood. We know, based on Tarantino’s past films, that his casting process is very mysterious at best. This was no different.

Pedretti had not made the acquaintance of Tarantino before she auditioned for Once Upon a Time. She knew he had seen any of her work prior to her audition because, as Pedretti noted, Hill House hadn’t even premiered on Netflix. She went into her audition with not one mainstream credit to her name.

What Victoria Pedretti understood very quickly in the process was that Tarantino was looking for actors to portray the Manson Family and he was looking for authenticity. The first thing he saw in Pedretti was her resemblance to the real Leslie Van Houten. Thankfully, Pedretti says that it wasn’t only her looks that got her the part. As she tells it, her acting skills “didn’t suck.” Obviously not, because Tarantino cast her as “Lulu” Van Houten. The role wasn’t big, but it was significant.

SHE STARS IN NETFLIX’S YOU

At that same time, Victoria Pedretti was finding a home on another Netflix series. This one was called You and she joined the Greg Berlanti series in its second season. In it, she plays Love Quinn, opposite Penn Badgley’s Joe Goldberg, who is escaping his past. Moving from New York to Los Angeles, Goldberg is looking for a fresh start after his last relationship ended in murder. The last thing Joe wants, or needs, is another woman in his life, but then enters Love.

VICTORIA PEDRETTI STARS IN HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR

Mike Flanagan was ready for another, the question that needed to be answered was, is Victoria Pedretti ready for one more go around? The answer was a resounding yes and Flanagan reteamed with Pedretti in the follow-up series to Hill House called The Haunting of Bly Manor.

This time Victoria Pedretti would not be playing her Hill House character, instead, she would be playing Dani Clayton, an au pair hired to watch the children of the wealthy Wingrave Family. Dani accepts the job as a way to escape her traumatic past but soon begins to experience the paranormal events of Bly Manor.

It was her role in Bly Manor, which followed her one 2020-episode stint on Amazing Stories that has given her the moniker of the “new Scream Queen.” It also helps that Pedretti starred opposite Elizabeth Moss in Shirley, a film about author Shirley Jackson. It appears Victoria Pedretti is becoming more and more comfortable with tales of horror.

SHE WILL NEXT STAR IN SAINT X

At the moment, other than You, if it is to be brought back for a fourth season, Victoria Pedretti has nothing lined up. She did have one big project she had been working on, a series for Hulu called Saint X, but has since left the project over what was deemed “creative differences.” She has since been replaced by actress Alycia Debnam-Carey (Fear the Walking Dead).

There has not been any word on just what those “creative differences” were that caused Victoria Pedretti to leave Saint X, but it has been well documented that the set has been besieged with trouble. The series, which is being filmed in the Dominican Republic, has been, via Collider “shut down in the Dominican Republic after a large number of crew members walked off the show reportedly over a pay dispute.” This dispute came after crew members claim they were not properly compensated for the overtime they were working. It finally came to a head and the crew walked off.