Alexandra Daddario’s star has been rising in Hollywood since her Emmy-nominated performance in Season 1 of The White Lotus. But before she played newlywed Rachel Patton, she was known in part for driving fans wild on another HBO drama, as the part-time lover of Woody Harrelson’s Martin Hart on True Detective. The steamy role unsurprisingly led to some attention for Daddario — career-wise and in daily life — and she recently shared her thoughts on baring it all on-screen, and the effect that role had on her career.
On Season 1 of True Detective, Alexandra Daddario had a recurring role as Marty Hart’s mistress Lisa Tragnetti. In the second episode, Woody Harrelson’s character arrived at Lisa’s house, gifting her with a pair of handcuffs, which she proceeded to use on him while taking off her clothes and reading him his Miranda rights. She spoke with Men’s Journal about the attention she received after that scene raised the collective temperatures of homes across the HBO viewing audience, saying:
I have a lot of thoughts on this topic, but for example, when True Detective came out and I was naked on the show, and it was huge for my career and the phone was ringing and I got some work off of it, I think that I hadn’t been that aware of my sex appeal prior to that. I tried not to take it too seriously. I really love acting, in my heart I’m just a theater nerd, and I sort of took that and said, ‘This is good for my career,’ and embraced it.
Alexandra Daddario acknowledged that the True Detective role got her some attention from people who wanted to cast her in other projects, and she said she leaned into her sex appeal for that purpose. It was something we saw again on The White Lotus, she pointed out, when Rachel flaunted her body in front of the Gen Z duo Olivia and Paula, who were smugly patronizing her and flirting with her husband.
While this is an aspect of her career that she’s apparently come to embrace, Alexandra Daddario said that showing so much of herself (literally) isn’t always 100% positive. She continued:
I really love what I do. I happen to have a lot of fun with getting dressed up and playing roles, and even on red carpets, I’m kind of playing a role. And it’s great, it’s fun, but I think it can be negative, some of the attention, and so I try to ignore some of the more negative aspects of it.
Her fans are surely grateful that she’s able to block out that negative attention, because they’ve been the beneficiaries of some great uninhibited moments from the actress over the years. This includes her pants-free lifestyle during the pandemic, creatively hiding a wardrobe malfunction with a strategically placed heart and showing off the view from her bathtub. Her days on the beaches of paradise didn’t end with The White Lotus, either, as she treated her followers to stunning bikini pics from Hawaii after tying the knot this summer.
Fans with an HBO Max subscription can rewatch her performances on True Detective and The White Lotus. Up next, she is set to star as Rowan Mayfair in Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches — an eight-episode series that will premiere on AMC January 8. See what else is coming to TV and streaming in the new year by peeping our 2023 TV schedule.
