The White Lotus

Alexandra Daddario casts a spell in Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches as a neurosurgeon who discovers a troubling family secret.

Rachel’s story is ultimately a tragedy, a grievous study in the pressures of class and the cost of compromise. She lives in this fantasy world where everything is going to be OK and is always trying to please. “Alexandra had an unpretentious, natural approach to the character that was very sweet.” “The tricky thing about this part is that she’s going to become a witch, but she starts out a surgeon,” Spalding says. Her turn as Rachel, a newlywed who begins to suspect that her decision to marry the rich and obnoxiously entitled Shane (Jake Lacy) might have been a huge mistake, provided one of the season’s few truly sympathetic characters. That experience prepared her somewhat to star in the reboot of another popular franchise seven years later. Her Instagram account, with nearly 23 million followers, is full of tasteful photos of herself in Paris, at home in Los Angeles with her new husband, or on vacation with no clothes in the infinity pool; it’s a careful mix of #inspo and sex appeal that marks the expert millennial influencer. Those two book series have combined to sell tens of millions of copies and earn a famously protective fan base, known for scrutinising every decision taken in a screen adaptation. But there was only this woman whom millions watched in her Emmy-nominated performance as Rachel in Season 1 of the HBO series. Then a college-age woman approached the table, as giddy as she was effusive. She clicked into red-carpet mode as the woman’s friend took a picture on her phone. But there are moments when she is reminded, as she was recently at a cafe and juice bar in Manhattan’s West Village.