Sabrina Impacciatore Wondered If Domhnall Gleeson Hated Her After ‘The Paper’ (Exclusive)

Sabrina Impacciatore may have pulled off playing the riotous Esmeralda Grande in The Paper with what seemed like ease, but the reality of playing the hilarious, attention-seeking character was very different.

The Italian actress, 57, broke out on the scene three years ago as hotel manager Valentina in season 2 of The White Lotus, and shifted gears completely for her latest role as the managing editor of the failing Toledo Truth Teller, a fictional newspaper that Domhnall Gleeson’s Ned tries to revitalize in a new series from the creator of The Office.

Esmeralda, who couldn’t care less about the Truth Teller’s success and cares more about ensuring Ned fails, is “the opposite of me,” Impacciatore, 57, tells PEOPLE. “It was very hard to get in that mindset of being manipulative and nasty and competitive.”

She saw the role as a challenge, so much so that she admits, “Every single day of the production, I thought, ‘Is this my last day?’ Every day.”

“Because, as an Italian, I thought my sense of comedy — will it ever translate?” she continues.

It didn’t help that Gleeson, 42, was her most frequent sparring partner onscreen. “He’s hard to break,” she says. “He is so focused. He’s very serious in what he does, and to me, that was so inspiring because I really, really believed [in the scene].”

She often had a “hard time” because of just how serious Gleeson was, but it motivated her at the same time. “Somehow, I was inspired. I said, I have to be even nastier, you know? I have to be even worse, because I wanted him to really feel [the scene], and I think he wanted me to really feel.”

“Sometimes, to be honest, I think, ‘Does he hate me in real life?’ And probably, that’s what he feels about me,” Impacciatore continues. “Because when you have to play a dynamic for a long time, you believe that the dynamic is real.”

It can be hard not to fall back into their Esmeralda-Ned banter when they’re together, even off-camera. “I am in a little bit of awe when I’m with him in real life, because I feel there is this awkward thing like, ‘Do we like each other or not?'”

The Irish actor, son of Brendan Gleeson, is “incredibly funny in real life,” she shares.

“In real life, I love Domhnall,” she says. “He’s someone that I didn’t expect to be so funny in real life. It’s very interesting — when you work with such a high level of talent, you don’t have to act. You just play.”

Since the show’s premiere on Peacock on Sept. 4 — it was renewed for a season 2 before the first episodes had dropped — Impacciatore says life is “out of control.”

“I’m so scared to open Instagram, for example. I didn’t read anything [about the show]. My publicist sent me a selection of very good reviews — I only read them. I sent them to my mom.”

It’s a “vulnerable” time, she admits, and it’s comparable in some ways to how she felt after The White Lotus premiered in October 2022.

“My life changed from Sunday to Monday,” she recalls. “I was in L.A., and I used to go to the same cafe every day. And then the show aired on Sunday, and Monday morning, I went to the same cafe, and I thought, ‘Oh, my life has changed.’ Because people were looking at me and saying, ‘Oh my god, you’re from White Lotus. You are the general manager.'”

When she thinks about life since Mike White cast her in the hit HBO series — she gets emotional talking about how present the creator remains in her life to this day — it’s “like a before and after,” the actress says. “I think that my life, if I look at it from [the] outside, it really should be a book.”

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Backing up that theory are the numerous kismet moments she can recall where she had a feeling of, “I’m supposed to be here.” On The Paper, that feeling came when John Krasinski and Steve Carell surprised the cast on day one of filming because they were next door filming a commercial for a coffee brand hailing from none other than Impacciatore’s homeland.

“It’s happened actually a few times, also with White Lotus. I had some big signs. Also, I must say, my Dad passed away one month before the audition for White Lotus. So I think, to be honest, I think that it’s also him helping,” she shares of Enea Impacciatore. “And he’s giving me signs. Like, ‘Hey, baby, I’m watching you.'”

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Season 1 of The Paper is now streaming on Peacock.