Victoria Pedretti was fresh out of Carnegie Mellon University\u2019s School of Drama when she was cast in Mike Flanagan\u2019s acclaimed 2018 horror series, \u201cThe Haunting of Hill House.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n In her breakout role as Nell Crain, the youngest and most sensitive of five adult siblings reckoning with wounds from a childhood summer spent in a cursed home, Pedretti became the undisputed heart of \u201cHill House,\u201d anchoring the show with a spellbinding performance that christened her as a scream queen. Her subsequent appearances in \u201cThe Haunting of Bly Manor\u201d and \u201cYou\u201d<\/a> were characterized by a similar dramatic intensity, solidifying her renown in the horror genre. <\/p>\n But in Pedretti\u2019s new \u201cForbidden Fruits,\u201d a horror-comedy directed by Meredith Alloway making her feature debut and produced by \u201cJennifer\u2019s Body\u201d screenwriter Diablo Cody, the actor shines in all-new soapy splendor. <\/p>\n Set in a Dallas shopping mall, \u201cForbidden Fruits\u201d revolves around an elite clique of retail employees who run a witches\u2019 coven out of the basement of their boho boutique Free Eden. Pedretti stars alongside Lili Reinhart, Lola Tung and Alexandra Shipp.<\/p>\n Victoria Pedretti in the movie \u201cForbidden Fruits.\u201d<\/p>\n (Sabrina Lantos \/ Independent Film Company and Shudder)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Initially asked to look at both the roles of whimsigoth physics buff Fig and the bubbly yet emotionally complex Cherry, described by Alloway as a \u201cTexas Brigitte Bardot,\u201d Pedretti fell hard for the latter.<\/p>\n \u201cShe really popped off the page,\u201d Pedretti, 31, says on a recent Zoom interview she takes while on a sandwich run in L.A. \u201cI entered into this glorious flow state.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t say I\u2019ve had any experience quite like it, where I really didn\u2019t spend a lot of time questioning myself,\u201d the actor says. \u201cShe kind of took over.\u201d <\/p>\n That confidence was perhaps the product of Pedretti performing in two stage plays before \u201cForbidden Fruits\u201d \u2014 or maybe it was the nighttime filming schedule. Either way, Pedretti says she improvised constantly and always kept swinging until somebody said, \u201cCut.\u201d <\/p>\n The result: Pedretti in Alloway\u2019s instant cult classic is a laugh-out-loud-funny unending well of charm, packing humor into even her most routine dialogue. In her best quotable moments, she seamlessly infuses her sometimes shrill timbre with a dash of Southern drawl. One of her most iconic facial expressions in the film is already circulating as a reaction meme online<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cI was enjoying being in this character so much, I just wouldn\u2019t stop,\u201d Pedretti says, adding that Alloway, who was sensitive to cast members\u2019 interpretations of their roles, supported experimentation. <\/p>\n Alloway praises the Philadelphia-born Pedretti for nailing Cherry\u2019s comedic moments yet also grounding the character in a traumatic backstory \u2014 a balancing act the director knew she was capable of after watching \u201cHill House.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI saw her in that show and I was like, \u2018Who<\/i> is that?\u2019\u201d Alloway says. \u201cShe is magnificent and so raw. I didn\u2019t feel like I was watching someone acting. I was worried for her.\u201d <\/p>\n After later watching Pedretti nail her role in \u201cYou\u201d as Love Quinn, a wealthy, charismatic chef who hides a psychopathic nature, Alloway was convinced of her star power. <\/p>\n Victoria Pedretti in the movie \u201cYou.\u201d<\/p>\n (John P. Fleenor \/ Netflix)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Cody was most familiar with Pedretti\u2019s performance in \u201cYou,\u201d pegging the actor as an \u201cintense brunet\u201d that didn\u2019t square at first with her interpretation of Cherry as an Anna Nicole Smith type. <\/p>\n \u201cThen I see the movie and I\u2019m like, oh my God, she has that fragility,\u201d Cody recalls. \u201cShe has that humor. She has that sexuality. She has all of it. <\/p>\n \u201cVictoria brought all of those layers and I\u2019m really blown away by her,\u201d the Oscar-winning \u201cJuno\u201d screenwriter adds.<\/p>\n Cody says she wasn\u2019t surprised that the film drew such talent. From the moment Alloway and Lily Houghton, who wrote the play \u201cForbidden Fruits\u201d is based on<\/a> and cowrote the film\u2019s screenplay, brought the material to Cody and her producing partner Mason Novick, she became obsessed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels spiritually like a film that I would want to be part of my body of work,\u201d Cody says. She remembers being especially delighted by the echoes of \u201cJennifer\u2019s Body\u201d present in Alloway and Houghton\u2019s screenplay. <\/p>\n \u201cJennifer\u2019s Body\u201d was widely considered a box-office flop and critical failure upon its release in 2009 \u2014 grossing only $31 million worldwide against a $16-million budget \u2014 but in recent years has enjoyed a reappraisal as a stealth-feminist essential<\/a>, reclaimed by superfans. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think that the world was ready for these kinds of themes,\u201d Cody says of the movie\u2019s ideas, including the cost of toxic femininity, the nuances of female friendship and the pervasiveness of the male gaze. <\/p>\n When it came to promoting \u201cJennifer\u2019s Body,\u201d the producer adds, \u201cthere was a huge emphasis on trying to market it to straight men, based on Megan [Fox] being attractive, and that was not at all the point of the film, so that was frustrating.\u201d Conversely, \u201cForbidden Fruits\u201d speaks intimately to the female experience and \u201cdoesn\u2019t attempt to pander to any other demographic.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe current zeitgeist is a great place for a movie like this,\u201d she says. \u201cThis movie is for the girls, gays and theys, as they say.\u201d<\/p>\n Alloway, a trained actor who worked as a film journalist before moving into directing, was struck with a similar feeling when she first discovered Houghton\u2019s play, right around the time she was consuming copious media about women criminals, such as Tori Telfer\u2019s 2017 book \u201cLady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was so entrenched in why women commit acts of crime,\u201d Alloway said, adding that she was disappointed to find that revenge films on the subject still often revolved around men. <\/p>\n Picking up Houghton\u2019s script, the director recalls feeling relieved. \u201cOh, this is just <\/i>about women,\u201d she says, her face brightening. \u201cThis is about women friendships, women being pitted against each other.\u201d<\/p>\n In an early meeting with Houghton, Alloway told the playwright she\u2019d like to bring a genre lens to \u201cturn up the dial on the emotions that you feel reading the play and make them accessible to people who haven\u2019t had these experiences \u2014 or validate people who have.\u201d<\/p>\n Outside of the opportunity to work with so many other young women, Pedretti said she was drawn to \u201cForbidden Fruits\u201d because of its use of style and tone. <\/p>\n \u201cIt asks a lot of people to try to step into a world like this one,\u201d the actor says of the unabashedly histrionic screenplay. \u201cAnd as nerve-racking as it may be to take that big swing, you gotta take the big swing.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cShe has that fragility,\u201d says producer Diablo Cody of Pedretti. \u201cShe has that humor. She has that sexuality. She has all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n (Evelyn Freja \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n And swing she does: Pedretti plays up Cherry\u2019s emotional volatility, giving her a full-bodied form of expression. The actor even did her own onscreen makeup (as did Reinhart) and collaborated heavily with costume designer Sarah Millman on Cherry\u2019s wardrobe and styling. Plus, she performed her first topless scene \u2014 in a sequence that doesn\u2019t involve men or even sex. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really proud of the way we use nudity to show a certain kind of unspoken comfortability among women,\u201d she continues. \u201cI remember always getting such a thrill at the comfort level of a girl being like, \u2018We\u2019re going to the bathroom together,\u2019 and to me, that is that moment.\u201d <\/p>\n It\u2019s a perfect example of a scene that doesn\u2019t try to speak to anyone except those it\u2019s specifically written for, and one that you only get with women at the helm<\/a> of a production. <\/p>\n Reflecting on the agency she had to shape Cherry, Pedretti says she is more inspired to explore directorial projects of her own. <\/p>\n \u201cI am so interested in protecting these spaces to be positive, creative experiences for everyone involved,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Whenever Pedretti does make her feature debut behind the camera (she\u2019s already made a short or two), perhaps Cody will pick up the phone.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/e8eec1b\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3600x2394+0+0\/resize\/320x213!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F68%2Feb%2Fb441cb014a91a66e1a3a0d531500%2Fyou-301-unit-00625r.jpg)
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