A Philly-born actress taps into her roots to play a witchy saleswoman in the new slasher film ‘Forbidden Fruits’
Victoria Pedretti has had a career spanning from summer camps at Bucks County Community College, plays at Pennsbury High School, and then training in France. All influenced by her artist parents.
Horror actor Victoria Pedretti holds a deep respect for clowns.
Dubbed a “modern-day scream queen,” she has played a tenderhearted but murderous wife in the show You, a supernaturally sensitive twin in The Haunting of Hill House, and, most recently, the effusive and troubled Cherry in Forbidden Fruits (in theaters now).
She infuses those performances with compelling depth, leaving audiences cheering, terrified, and mystified — and the Philadelphia-born actor credits her captivating ability, in part, to clown work.
That fascination doesn’t stem from the horror genre; it dates back to her childhood.
Pedretti’s parents are performing artists — a contemporary dancer mother and a clown-and-mime theater director father — exposed her to the rich variety of creative expression in and around Philadelphia.
That included the summertime clown camp at Bucks County Community College.
“I think a lot of kids would feel weirded out or something, but I always really admired the work that my parents championed, and also really loved the people who made it,” said Pedretti, 31, who now lives in Los Angeles. “As unpopular as it made me, I was always trying to encourage other children to appreciate what mime and clown had to offer…in my life, every day was about clowns and mimes.”
She spent her early years in Manayunk where her parents founded and ran Movement Theatre International, a renowned regional theater company now called Iron Gate Theatre. Her father Michael Pedretti directed dozens of productions and produced theater festivals, and her mother Nancy Hill, also an arts educator, grew up in West Philly and attended Temple University.
The actor felt at home backstage at dance recitals or ushering guests at plays, and she deeply admired all the performers she encountered. When her mother danced flamenco, Pedretti recalled how moved she felt.
“They had this powerful, embodied womanhood, womanness — I don’t even know what to call it, but it was deeply feminine and also incredibly strong,” she said. “Watching these women on stage, I was like ‘Damn, I want to be like that when I grow up.’”
Eventually the family moved to Bucks County and Pedretti started acting onstage at Pennsbury High School in Fairless Hills before continuing on at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama.
But she didn’t leave the clowns behind: As part of her training, she traveled to France to study with internationally acclaimed clowning professor Philippe Gaulier, who taught a number of Hollywood stars including Emma Thompson and Rachel Weisz.
“The clown work that I’ve done has been the most influential work practice that I’ve ever done, ” she said. “There is something about being challenged to confront the shame that we are taught as people in society, and kind of push back against it, and allow our instincts and humanness to guide us in performance, which, ultimately, is how I see clown work and acting.”
In Forbidden Fruits, Pedretti plays the seemingly ditzy blond Cherry who is completely devoted to the girl boss/cult leader Apple (Riverdale’s Lili Reinhart). The story centers on four women working at a Free People-like luxury boho clothing shop during the day while performing witchy rituals in the store basement at night. They praise each other for putting their sisterhood first, no matter the collateral damage.
Produced by Jennifer’s Body and Juno writer Diablo Cody, the film draws comparisons to a campy slasher take on Mean Girls. (They even filmed at the same mall featured in Tina Fey’s iconic high school comedy.) It’s based on the 2019 play Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die, and playwright Lily Houghton served as cowriter with director Meredith Alloway.
Pedretti saw in the playful, exuberant Cherry something she recognized since she was young — a woman who challenges perceptions about her intelligence, complexity, and power from those who only view her as one-dimensional.
“I was always really interested in the trope of these very sexualized blond women, and I knew there was so much more complexity than how they were presented,” she said. “They have this rich internal life that people just refuse to engage with. It’s so dehumanizing and abusive…It’s most interesting to me, in character, to work against people’s assumptions and open their minds to surprise them.”
Pedretti takes the chance to showcase that subversive depth in the gasp-worthy finale, when the film gets a violent jolt. The once-deferential Cherry delivers a haunting line to the friend who broke her heart: “Am I the main character now?”
‘Forbidden Fruits’ is in theaters now.