Victoria Pedretti explains how filming The Haunting of Bly Manor was different than Hill House

The Haunting of Bly Manor premiered on Netflix last week, and people can’t stop talking about how amazing Victoria Pedretti is as Dani Clayton.

While Pedretti appeared primarily through flashbacks and as a ghost in The Haunting of Hill House, she is the main character this season. In Bly Manor, viewers meet Dani Clayton, a young American woman who is hired as an au pair for two young children who have tragically lost their parents.

Their aloof uncle seems uninterested in raising them, so Dani is left to care for the kids on the vast estate at Bly. Soon enough, Dani begins to feel that something sinister is lurking on the grounds.

This season also features returning actors Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Henry Thomas, Kate Siegel, and Carla Gugino, as well as some fantastic newcomers like Amelia Eve, T’Nia Miller, Rahul Kohli, and Tahirah Sharif.

Victoria Pedretti gave a heart-wrenching performance this season and she recently gave an interview where she discussed the show’s production process. Here is what the actress told DigitalSpy about the differences between filming The Haunting of Bly Manor and working on the set of Hill House:

"It was an extremely different experience to Hill House. Compared to the first season, where Mike Flanagan directed every single one of the episodes, this season he directed the first episode and then we had all of these wonderful directors come in to work with us for the rest of them."

She continued to elaborate on the pros and cons of having a new director for each episode:

"The director’s work differently… So yeah that definitely kept us on our toes. It was kind of unfortunate because it felt like every time we were finally really getting into the swing of things, and really getting to know each other and how each other worked, [we moved] on to another director."

Pedretti also commented on how different the experience of filming Bly Manor was because her character this season was such a departure from the role she played on Hill House:

"I tried to spend time being alone, and sitting, and closing my eyes, and taking deep breaths in order to get my heart rate down. Because when you’re performing somebody who has a hummingbird-like heart rate, when you’re physically performing it, it does actually affect your insides as well."

I’ve already watched all nine episodes of The Haunting of Bly Manor and I can tell you that it’s definitely worth the watch. You can stream the entire season on Netflix now.