Alexandra Daddario has been acting onscreen for 20 years, and her craft still comes down to one thing: understanding her character’s journey. It’s a fitting practice, as the star of “The White Lotus” says that her acting career has been a process of understanding herself. The role of Rachel Patton on the HBO satire had her mining a character caught between settling for a life of comfort with a man she doesn’t love and following her dreams of becoming a writer.
She wanted to keep Rachel’s arc on “The White Lotus” as grounded as possible.
“She’s going through this process of discovering that she’s made a mistake in marrying this guy. She doesn’t know who she is, and she’s been having these feelings for a while, but they haven’t really come out. She’s allowed herself to be distracted, and then they’re all coming out. And at the end of the day, she’s in the same place that she started. You always want to have that feeling like: You start here, and then you end here; you’re a different person, and you learn something. And that doesn’t really happen here. That’s why there was also this reaction [from audiences] of: ‘Why did she stay?’ The point was that sometimes that’s the story, and that’s life.”
Mapping out roles makes it easier for her to go with the flow.
“I think once you figure out your backstory and your relationship with all the other characters and you [go] in depth with who your character is, then you can let it go when you go to set. And sometimes you find things you never thought of. Sometimes I stick to [the page], and then sometimes you’ll be in a scene and find something that you hadn’t planned on. That’s part of the joy of acting for me. But it all comes from knowing exactly who the character is and how she feels about the world around her.”
How to Get Cast on ‘The White Lotus’She credits where she is now to all her past missteps.
“When I first started, I remember getting feedback that I was ‘green,’ and I remember going in and not [booking roles]. I had plenty of terrible auditions or adjustments where I wasn’t prepared. I had to become a better actor. First you become a better auditioner, then you become a better actor and work on your confidence. The biggest thing that helped me with that was memorizing my lines for every audition; that made a gigantic difference, because then you’re not thinking about your lines and you can think about the character and your evolution. You learn from mistakes. I’ve been fired off a soap [opera] before; I’ve been late to an audition, and the casting director told me to leave. I definitely became a better actor after [having those experiences].”
Her dedication to acting helps her stay focused.
“I always tried to keep my head down and work really hard, [and I didn’t let] myself get distracted with anything other than the work. I did it because I loved it. Even when I wasn’t very good at it, I loved it and I wanted to get better at it. I didn’t have any sense that I would get a job anywhere other than in the audition room. So don’t busy yourself with what other people think, or think you should be doing something differently, because you’re going to have all these ups and downs and be hard on yourself; and sometimes it’s a lot of projection. Just remember why you love it—that’s very important—and take care of yourself.”
This story originally appeared in the June 9 issue of Backstage Magazine.
