By the timePercy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thiefrolled around,Alexandra Daddarioalready had quite a few credits to her name. She had a lengthy run onAll My Childrenand also made guest appearances on shows likeLaw & OrderandDamages. But scoring a lead role in aChris Columbus-directed studio film is a completely different ballgame, a project with the power to jumpstart a career in a big way and keep those credits coming. The thing is though, that firstPercy Jacksonmovie also had a lot of pressure on it to live up toHarry Potterstandards.
The success of theHarry Potterfilm franchise was largely responsible for creating a young adult book-to-film adaptation frenzy in Hollywood. TheTwilightmovies bolstered it and thenThe Hunger Gamesamplified it even further. But when it comes toPercy Jackson in particular, theHarry Potterblueprint is the closest match. The 2010 release featured a group of rising young stars alongside some very recognizable industry veterans includingUma Thurman,Sean BeanandPierce Brosnan. Plus,The Lightning Thiefwas designed to spark a blockbuster franchise.
Yes, it’s an incredible opportunity, but that’s also got to be a whole lot of pressure for someone making her first big studio movie. While onCollider Ladies Nightpromoting her new HBO series,The White Lotus, Daddario took a moment to look back on thePercy Jacksonexperience and her expectations for the film. Here’s what she said when asked if she could feel theHarry Potterpressure while making the movie:
“I loved Harry Potter and I knew that it was structurally similar, but to me, at that time, when I was cast in it I was 22. To me it was just like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m gonna go do a movie!’ Now I’m older and I’ve been in enough films and gone through a bunch of press cycles and all of that stuff, so I have more of a sense of how important this is or that is, or if a movie’s gonna work or not work. But at the time, it was just like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m in a movie.’ So I didn’t think about the pressure of anything. I didn’t really understand what was gonna happen from that movie or the concept of tracking or budgets or first weekend box office. That was all stuff I learned through it, so any pressure I felt was just a pressure to do a good job. I just wanted to do a good job and to have fun, and that was the pressure that I was putting on myself. I wasn’t thinking about, ‘Is this too similar to Harry Potter,’ or, ‘Is this gonna work,’ or anything like that.”
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With age, however, comes more industry experience and knowhow. “I do have more knowledge and understanding of tracking and how things are gonna work,” Daddario noted. “You just never know what’s gonna happen, so I just attempt to do the best I can in whatever I choose to do and that’s it.” She continued by explaining how she manages high expectations in Hollywood:
“One of the things that my experiences have taught me is that you can’t really put too many expectations. You’ll drive yourself crazy. Sometimes you know, ‘Oh, this movie isn’t gonna work,’ or, ‘This movie’s gonna do this,’ and I’m okay with that. But the biggest successes I’ve had in my career, I did not expect or they were completely out of the blue. And the biggest jobs I’ve booked, I had no concept that I was gonna book them. So I’ve tried to maintain my sanity or whatever my viewpoint on life is, I try not to put too many expectations on things.”
In addition to booking projects and hoping they’re successful, another major component of the moviemaking machine is marketing, and it can be significant — especially on a movie as big asPercy Jackson, which happens to be one of the very first studio movie junkets I ever covered. Having learned quite a bit about conducting interviews since, I asked Daddario for the tips she’s picked up along the way. If she could go back to that junket, what advice would she give herself about taking part in the blockbuster press cycle? Here’s what she told me:
“That you don’t have to be perfect. I know they sent us to media training on that film. We were all very young and I had zero experience. I was very concerned about promoting things the right way and saying the right things. You know, I was younger, too. You just get older - I’m more now like, ‘Okay, just be yourself.’ I still get nervous and want to say the right things and not say anything stupid, but I just would have been like, ‘Relax.’ But that’s true of any young person! I would have gone back in time in every situation and been like, ‘Chill out. It’s okay.’ But there’s something about putting that pressure on yourself that’s like, you have to to grow.”
Looking for more from Daddario? you may catch our full, uncut conversation coveringTexas Chainsaw 3D,True Detective,Die in a Gunfight,The White Lotusand so much more in podcast form below:
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