Interview: TV Star Victoria Pedretti Talks Transition From Screen to Stage in AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE

TV star Victoria Pedretti is known all over the world for her standout performances in Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor and You. Pedretti was also featured on the big screen in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and can be seen in Ava DuVernay’s Origin, and Esteban Arango’s Ponyboi. She will also be starring in If She Burns, directed by Alex Wolff, and has joined the film The Book of Jobs, starring alongside Judy Greer, Rich Sommer and more. 

Pedretti is currently making her Broadway debut as Petra in An Enemy of the People. BroadwayWorld spoke with Pedretti about the transition from screen to stage, working with Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli, and much more. 

Read the full interview and check out photography by BroadwayWorld's own Jennifer Broski below!

You have had incredible success on screen. Has Broadway always been a goal or a dream of yours?

Yeah, that was kind of always the goal. I don’t know where I got the idea from, but I assumed if I had any opportunities they would be in theater. So, it was surprising when I ended up working in film and television. I studied theater in college, and then I just immediately afterwards started working in film and television, but I've always wanted to do theater. I really believe in the power of theater. I think it's very empowering as an actor to have the space and time on stage to explore the story and communicate it to the audience with your own intentions. I think it maybe holds a little bit more weight than when they're edited.

What were your first thoughts when you learned that you would be making your Broadway debut in An Enemy of the People?

I think it was a lot of... fear. [laughs]. I have pretty high expectations of myself. I understand there's a lot of talent and energy going into the show. And I think I always hope that I just won't bring it down at all [laughs]. And I'm out of practice. So, I was really nervous. Excited, of course, but for the first few weeks, I think the nerves were the more present emotion.

I’d love to hear about the differences in screen acting versus stage acting for you and how that influenced how you approached the material.

When I was doing theater in college, I really learned how to feel the energy of the audience and move with it. And then once I started getting into film and television, your focus narrows into this small point on a camera. And that's really different. It's kind of like inverting the triangle. Like you're the center point and you're extending out of yourself and then all of a sudden you're the largest point and you're narrowing into this tiny lens. So, that's a pretty huge shift. And shifting back has been… I think it's really energetic work. You're getting to relate to an audience, which carries different energy different days. You carry different energy different days. We're all human. And doing that balancing act, it takes practice. It's a skill. It's not something that just happens. So, it's been really wonderful practicing, and feeling the audience, and building confidence in that way.

The company of this show is incredible, what has it been like working with Jeremy Strong, Michael Imperioli and Sam Gold?

They're all very different, very amazing people that I’ve learned a lot from and been inspired by. I’m really excited for everybody to see what they created. They're all very passionate artists, passionate, dedicated artists. And I feel really, really honored to be working with them. Really, truly. I'm kind of blown away with how lucky I got.

What do you remember most from your first performance in the show?

I was terrified, and I was wearing a corset, so I was breathing heavy, and then it was even  harder to breathe because of the corset [laughs]. The first show, it's a high wire act, you know? And I really felt that.

Has anything surprised you since getting back into the swing of being onstage?

The truth is that even when I was doing theater, I was doing maybe two weekends for, like, a school play, which is different than weeks of performances. So, I wasn't surprised by it, but just understanding how much energy it takes. When I'm up there I'm really engaged in what I'm doing, so I don't necessarily realize how much energy it takes. I just think learning how to sustain myself throughout the course of this production will be… it wasn’t an unexpected challenge, but one I couldn't know until I was doing it.

Instead of a traditional intermission, there is an extended pause in the show where a bar comes onto the stage, and audience members can come up on the stage. How has that experience been?

I'm not on stage when that starts, but I walk on stage as the show's restarting again, and you have a whole scene of the show where you have the house lights up and you can see the audience around you. I mean honestly, I can see the audience around me all the time, it's the interesting thing about being in the round. But, yeah, it's very experimental, and I think it's functioning in the way that we hoped. I hope audiences enjoy it and feel engaged in the conversation that we're trying to have with them. I also really believe in feeding people [laughs]. So that's also something I really enjoy about the show. I do see the crossover between food and theater as important to me on a personal level. So, I was very excited to hear that we were encouraging people to eat and drink and invite them into the space even more literally.

Why do you think that right now the right time for a revival of this play, and what do you hope that audiences take away from it?

I think, honestly, the real thing is for people to understand that these conversations have been going on for such a long time. It's not unique to this moment in history. People deserve to express themselves freely. Primarily, I think we can, for better or for worse, understand that these challenges that we're facing are not new. I hope people leave understanding the value of engaging in respectful conversation, and even disagreements.