Ahead of the release of Paramount’s new Baywatch movie in 2017, there was a lot of reason for optimism. The movie had a splashy cast, led by none other than Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson; it reunited him with his San Andreas “daughter” Alexandra Daddario and it starred Zac Efron and Priyanka Chopra to boot. But when the movie hit theaters it was critically panned and years later Daddario is admitting it negatively affected her career.
In a recent profile interview, Alexandra Daddario opened up about really kicking her career into high gear with her popular role in the Percy Jackson films. She told the NY Times that was the gig that really helped her know how to bring an already-popular franchise to life on the big screen with Baywatch, though it had ramifications she hadn’t anticipated.
‘Baywatch’ raised my profile and changed the kinds of jobs I was being offered, maybe not in a positive way. But I’m glad I did it.
While the actress’ comments here indicate she’s not one for regrets, they do tie in with some comments she shared a few months ago. Late last year, Alexandra Daddario talked her career “stalling” in the years just prior to the pandemic. While she didn’t note at the time why it had happened, if you tie her previous statements in with these new comments about how Baywatch panned out, it’s easy to see how the two probably relate.
The good news is the actress was one of the savviest celebrities to follow during the pandemic, going viral for everything from a big, juicy burger post to recreating a White Lotus bikini scene with co-star Sydney Sweeney. Over time, she has rallied in the post-Baywatch era.
Meanwhile, it’s hard to put a finger on what exactly sunk Baywatch, but a lazy script seems to have been one major culprit, with jokes about corpse penises and lots of superhero references shoehorned in. The flick may only have a 17% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but the good news is that for the major names involved, it wasn’t a career sinker, as they’ve all gone on to splashy new projects in the time since.
For Daddario, though she admits she had a dry period, HBO and HBO Max creator Mike White took a chance on her by casting her in then-new series The White Lotus, which ended up being a good bet for the actress, as she’s drawn attention for her awards-worthy performance and the aforementioned viral bikini scene alike.
Now, this month, Alexandra Daddario kicked off her latest TV role in Mayfair Witches, the second in what AMC hopes will be a series of Anne Rice-based TV projects. It’s the one that follows the critically acclaimed Interview with a Vampire at the network. The future should be spellbinding for fans of the actress, and I, for one, can’t wait to see what she does next.