Alexandra Daddario Says She's Had Acupuncture Needles 'Everywhere'
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“I don’t fly on a broomstick or lean over a cauldron.”
It’s early afternoon on a Saturday, and 36-year-old actor Alexandra Daddario is explaining, via Zoom from her art-laden New Orleans rental, the mystical nuances of her upcoming TV series Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, an adaptation of the author’s book series that premieres early next year on AMC. Given Alexandra’s seriously jam-packed schedule of late, it’s a wonder she can remember her own name, let alone the biography of the neurosurgeon protagonist she portrays, Rowan, who learns only in adulthood that she is descended from a long line of witches.
Now, if you’re curious as to just how truly crammed that calendar of Alexandra’s is, here’s a quick peek: A mere 48 hours after posing for this Women’s Health cover (and still sporting the pretty pink manicure done on-set), Alexandra tied the knot with Hollywood producer Andrew Form at the French Quarter’s historic Preservation Hall in front of an intimate gathering of guests. (“I wanted it to feel like a good, easy time without the pressure of convention,” she says of the laid-back affair.) Alexandra then returned to production on Mayfair Witches for a handful of days before sitting for this interview. The very next day, she embarked on a “mini honeymoon” with Form: a road trip through Mississippi and Alabama with the beaches of Florida’s panhandle as their final stop.
Alexandra admits the whole planning-a-wedding-while-filming-a-TV-show thing was stressful. But once the vows were exchanged and the second line (the parade recessional leading the wedding party from the venue to the reception) began its march down Royal Street, she was left with a sense of calm. “When I met Andrew, we just both knew,” she says. “The wedding was wonderful; it felt a bit like an inevitable conclusion. So I feel really at peace.”
It’s clear after speaking with Alexandra for just a short while that she has an innate sense of when something feels right, and—perhaps more important—when something doesn’t. It’s an instinct we may all have but aren’t always great about tuning in to. For Alexandra, that instinct is a guiding light.
Growing up on New York’s Upper East Side as the eldest child of two lawyer parents (her siblings, Matthew and Catharine, are also actors), Alexandra felt pressure to succeed—to get good grades and attend a prestigious college. But despite being a voracious reader, she didn’t really excel in school. She tended to gravitate more toward artistic pursuits rather than academic ones, so she embraced a different outlet for her energy: acting.
“I thought it was this incredible opportunity to feel in a world where I constantly felt stifled,” she says. “I was an emotional child and very sensitive and sweet. I felt things deeply.”
Alexandra cut her teeth in children’s theater, then moved on to commercials. Her first—or at least the first where you can see her face—was for SnackWell’s Devil’s Food Cookie Cakes (remember those?!). A role on the soap opera All My Children followed at age 16, but she was fired after one year.
“I wasn’t a very good actress,” Alexandra says of her early days. “I could memorize my lines, but finding my camera, finding my light, even learning how to walk naturally—it took a lot of practice. I knew something was wrong, but I knew I could fix it. I knew that I loved what I did and that I could be better.”
So instead of giving up, Alexandra forged ahead, enrolling in an acting course on the Meisner technique. (“It’s a lot about repetition—ultimately, the purpose is to create something that’s real under imaginary circumstances.”) And through learning, coaching, and critiquing her own performances, she improved. Her breakthrough came in 2010, playing Annabeth in the movie Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Memorable turns on HBO’s True Detective and the Baywatch movie garnered further attention in the industry. But then…Alexandra hit a wall. She was still working, but the roles weren’t propelling her career forward in the way, say, True Detective had.
“In the couple years prior to the pandemic, I knew the work I needed to be doing, but it just wasn’t happening,” she says. “I was like, ‘Where am I going?’”
Then she received a call for a part that would both creatively fulfill her and help chart a new course: “[Creator] Mike White wants you to get on a plane and go to Hawaii. But here’s the catch: You can’t leave the Four Seasons.” Yes, that more or less was the pitch that persuaded Alexandra to sign on to the HBO limited series The White Lotus, in which she played a newlywed journalist on the honeymoon from hell. Her hard work during less-than-ideal pandemic conditions paid off, earning Alexandra her first Emmy nomination. “I never expect these things to happen,” she says of the show’s success. “They constantly surprise me. I just do what I love.”
Which brings us back to that head-spinning schedule she’s juggling for Mayfair Witches, her first leading TV role. Long days on-set require Alexandra to maintain a nimble readiness, in both mind and body, and she has two secret weapons for that: hot yoga and acupuncture. “If I do them back-to-back, it’s almost like a computer rebooting,” she says.
Alexandra was introduced to acupuncture at the age of 23, when she was suffering from a frozen shoulder (i.e., joint pain and stiffness). She started going regularly, and after three months, her shoulder thawed—and she was sold. She’s so into the Chinese medicine practice, which she says also aids her sleep and stress levels, that she contemplated going to acupuncture school solely to learn more about it. “I’m obsessed,” she says. “I’ve had the needles everywhere—all over my body.”
And on that last account, she isn’t joking. A few years back, she was referred to a practitioner who specialized in five-element acupuncture, a modality that emphasizes the harmony of the “five elements” of creation—wood, fire, earth, metal, and water—within us. After the acupuncturist assessed Alexandra, she delivered her recommendation: “She goes, ‘I’m going to have to needle your perineum. Do you know what that is?’ And I go, ‘My taint?!’”
Yep, the taint. A true diehard, Alexandra agreed to the placement as well as the corresponding needle point right above the gumline in her mouth. “I will tell you,” she says, flashing her megawatt grin, “I felt like a million bucks the next day.”
She supplements the acupuncture and steamy yoga with weekly strength-training sessions. Alexandra started sweating with celeb trainer Patrick Murphy in 2015 ahead of Baywatch, and she remains a loyal client because of his emphasis on functionality and safety. Though she gets a full-body workout, the duo focuses on back strengthening for posture (with exercises like dumbbell rows, dynamic bridges, and reverse flies) and hip and glute activation for Alexandra’s goal of a bigger butt (utilizing moves like clamshells, Bulgarian split squats, and walking lunges). Here, too, Alexandra is dedicated. “She puts in the work and never looks for shortcuts,” says Murphy.
When not in the gym, Alexandra relishes outdoor time, whether it’s a swim in the ocean or a hike on the trail. “I’ve found that my body heals faster and responds better if I’m in tune with myself and can be in nature,” she says.
Alexandra’s approach to eating is also about giving her body what it needs to thrive. The day starts with coffee—a cappuccino with almond or oat milk—and a breakfast of yogurt and fruit or egg whites with spinach and toast. Lunch has been the same every day lately: a turkey sandwich with cheese, mustard, and mayo, which is easy to eat in between takes. Her snack is whatever chocolate is available at craft services (chocolate is chocolate!), while dinner is usually a bowl of pasta with veggies and olive oil. When she has free evenings at home, Alexandra cooks more involved meals like steak and fresh vegetables or hearty soup.
Another at-home activity she’s become ardent about is playing chess with Form. “It’s our version of a night out at the club,” she jokes. “We’re gonna get a little wild, open a bottle of wine, and fight over chess.”
Though Alexandra swears she’s not a competitive person, chess seems to unearth something primal within her: “I’m a total monster,” she says of her must-win mentality. And in typical Alexandra fashion, she’s been taking the proper steps to ensure she does.
“I started a Chess.com account and played to try to learn,” she says. “I got so good that the next time we played, Andrew was like, ‘What’s going on here?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know.…’”
That anecdote perfectly sums her up: logging the hours to hone a passion, and doing so with a smile (or wink). It’s with that upbeat spirit that she’ll approach the next chapter as an actor, wife, stepmom to Form’s two kids, and whatever other titles she earns. “All I can do is be optimistic and hope it’s positive,” she says. “Even if it isn’t always what I expect.” That outlook, especially nowadays, requires true magic to conjure up.
Photographed by Ben Watts. Styled by Kristen Saladino. Hair: Ryan Trygstad. Makeup: Gita Bass at The Wall Group. Manicure: Elle Gerstein. Set design: Cate Geiger Kalus.
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