Victoria Pedretti is back on Collider Ladies Night for You Season 3! Back in October, we had an extended conversation about her journey in the industry thus far, but now it’s time to dig a little deeper, play some games and also discuss what Love goes through in the new season of You.
At the start of Season 3, Joe (Penn Badgley) and Love are married and have a baby. Hoping to create a safe life for their son, they move to the town of Madre Linda in Northern California. Even though they’re eager to do what’s necessary for baby Henry, we all well know that both Joe and Love have certain tendencies and patterns that make it a bit difficult for them to live the average suburban lifestyle.
While retracing her steps in the industry, we absolutely had to touch on what was essentially Pedretti's breakout role, The Haunting of Hill House. While discussing the value of a good scene partner, Pedretti noted how important that was while making Hill House given the make-or-break feel of the project. Here’s how she put it:
“I’ve really been lucky to work with a lot of really great scene partners. I think I’ve become more confident as time has gone on. I think Hill House was definitely the role I was most nervous for because there was that component of, ‘Well, if I f*ck up the first one, who’s ever gonna have the thought to hire me again, you know?”
When it came to pinpointing a particular Hill House cast member who set a good example and inspired Pedretti to strive for similar things on her future projects, the answer came quite quickly -- Carla Gugino. Pedretti explained:
“She creates a wonderful atmosphere. She really takes on that role of leadership that I think actors don’t choose, but are kind of put in. We do, for better or for worse, control a lot of the tone of the set some of the time. If an actor’s really difficult or even stressed or frustrated, of course those things are normal but the ability to deal with those things with grace I think really improves the working environment for everybody, and she’s just a beacon of grace.”
After Hill House, Pedretti found yet another stellar scene partner in Penn Badgley. While their collaboration did change moving from Season 2 to 3 for a number of reasons, Pedretti found that it changed for the better, in a way that suited what their characters are going through now. Here’s how she put it:
“We’re just not connecting as much in general as a couple this season and that was simultaneously existing with Penn having a three month old baby when we started — something like that. I don’t know exactly how many months old his baby was. [Laughs] Also a pandemic. Before that we were just able to interact more outside of set and talk about things more and, just a product of everything, we just spent less time together and that kind of suited how our relationship developed as characters.”
[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 3 finale of You.]When we hit the spoiler portion of the conversation, we absolutely had to discuss Love’s various outbursts throughout the season. While there is a consistent violent streak to them, the nuance Pedretti brings to the role ensures that they all feel different and well reflect how Love truly feels about hurting people. Here’s how Pedretti broke it down:
“I think killing Natalie does not feel good. I don’t think that she gets pleasure out of killing people. I think she gets pleasure out of hurting Gil probably. But yeah, the act of killing Natalie, there’s a level of vengeance to it and a level of anger. And when she goes after Theo, that’s just desperation. She feels she has no other option. She’s devastated that it’s come to this. I think she really see him as this beautiful, young bleeding heart. He reminds her of her brother a bit, and also of Joe in ways.”
Looking for even more from Pedretti on her experience working on You, Hill House and more? Be sure to catch her episode of Collider Ladies Night at the top of this article or you can listen to our conversation uncut in podcast form below!