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Finding the spotlight was always the M.O. of actress Victoria Pedretti, born in Philadelphia to academic parents. “I was one of those kids who demanded attention,” Pedretti says. “I tried dancing and singing, and I think through a lot of rejection in those [pursuits], I found my way to acting.”

Now she is poised to follow up her feature-film debut, in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, with a Netflix double feature— both returning to her breakout series, The Haunting Of Hill House and joining You for its second season. Playing one-half of the tormented Crain twins on Hill House was also her very first acting job. As an alumna of Carnegie Mellon’s School of Drama, Pedretti was well aware of her chosen industry’s narrow odds at success. “[I’ve known people] who worked their whole lives developing [a craft] that may never support them financially; people who are willing to compromise everything for their art,” Pedretti says. “I’d very much prepared myself for going years with never having the opportunity to work in my field.”

Next year, she’ll star in the Hill House‘s second installment, re-dubbed The Haunting Of Bly Manor. Meanwhile, You’s sophomore season drops this fall. “[The first season] of You was so intoxicating; I could not stop watching it,” Pedretti says of the thriller, in which Penn Badgley plays the most dubious of antiheroes—a stalker. “The style of the show just draws you in, and so much of that is [thanks to] Penn: you just want to keep watching him.”

In Tarantino’s Hollywood, she played Lulu, a member of Charles Manson’s cult. “I’d never gotten that far in a film audition before… It was an insane experience,” she says, recounting the surreality of her callback: “They had already started filming, and wanted to see my proficiency on horseback. So one of the wranglers and I rode our horses onto set—and [there was] Leonardo DiCaprio, also on horseback! I’m just on a horse, watching them film a movie… It was completely immersive like I’d gone back through time.”

Equestrianism aside, Tarantino’s old-school methods ensured Pedretti’s first filmmaking experience would also be a uniquely retro one: “I’m sitting there between takes, and someone pulls film out of the camera, and my jaw just dropped,” Pedretti recalls. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, I forgot [about film cameras!] Is everyone seeing this?!’ Just knowing [some films are still shot that way]—that alone was very cool.”