In ‘Mayfair Witches,’ Alexandra Daddario Takes a Dark Turn

Despite much evidence to the contrary, Alexandra Daddario still does not consider herself a famous person.

But there are moments when she is reminded, as she was on a chilly afternoon in late November, at a small cafe and juice bar in Manhattan’s West Village. For most of an hourlong conversation, she had managed to sip her honey almond matcha latte unnoticed. Then a college-age woman approached the table, as giddy as she was effusive.

“Excuse me,” the young woman said. “I’ve literally seen you in ‘The White Lotus.’ You’re my favorite actress.”

Daddario’s striking sea-blue eyes — you’ll see them plastered all over New York City’s subways and bus stops right now, advertising the new AMC series “Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches” — widened in genuine surprise. She glanced around, as if to verify that there were, in fact, no other “White Lotus” actresses in the cafe.

But of course not. There was only this woman whom millions watched in her Emmy-nominated performance as Rachel in Season 1 of the hit HBO series “The White Lotus.” This woman who is about to take her first lead in a major TV series, debuting Sunday, in which she plays Dr. Rowan Fielding — an adopted last name, in a departure from the novels — a young neurosurgeon who discovers that she is descended from the family of Mayfair witches.

Daddario smiled, stood up and put her arm around the young woman. In her enormous cheetah-print coat, black turtleneck and strappy black sandals she was, she acknowledged, a little overdressed for the setting, but she had come straight from a photo shoot. She clicked into red-carpet mode as the young woman’s friend clicked a pic on her phone.