Alexandra Daddario: ‘I’m getting my revenge by being a Baywatch babe’

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Actress Alexandra Daddario may not quite be a household name but she has been steadily working since her breakout role as Laurie on All My Children. She is also my new Spirit Guide for her comments at Saturday’s SlowMo Marathon in LA, held as promotion for the movie Baywatch. For anyone who doesn’t know, Baywatch is based off the TV series by the same name, which revolved around a group of beach lifeguards. The series was widely popular and led to cultural phenomenons like a resurgence in the US of David Hasselhoff’s career and the Baywatch Babe. No amount of attention to detail or story-telling complexity could distract viewers from the fact that beautiful people were running in slow motion in swimsuits. There was a time that merely being hired to appear in one of the iconic red suits automatically elevated an actor/actress to the status of sex symbol. Alexandra knows this and is rubbing it in the faces of all those who wouldn’t give her the time of day back in high school.

In the dating world, it doesn’t get much better than being a Baywatch babe. At least that’s the case for Alexandra Daddario, one of the female stars of the much-buzzed-about big screen reboot of the popular TV series.

“It feels really surreal — as a teenager I could never really get guys and I was pretty nerdy,” Daddario told PEOPLE at the Slowmo Marathon in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday morning. “Now I feel like I’m getting my revenge by being a Baywatch babe. I’m like, ‘You could have had this and now look at me.’ ”

The star, who admits that she’s dating right now, also revealed what she was looking for in a partner: “It’s hard. I just want to date someone nice. Like everyone else, I want to be happy so that’s what I’m looking for.”

[From People]

Although I generally consider myself a peaceful person, I adore a good revenge story. Like I’ve read The Count of Monte Cristo repeatedly – and it keeps getting better with each read. That’s why Alexandra is my new Spirit Guide. You aren’t supposed to say this out loud, right? You can think it, but society says we have to keep these thoughts locked up in the name of propriety. Not Alexandra: screw you, high school jerks – how do you like me now? Think of how many films deal with the awkward/clumsy nerd transformed into a hottie trope – we eat that stuff up. And Alexandra is living it out loud. I believe her when she says she just wants “to date someone nice,” but I also believe that the descriptor “white-hot” must be hovering somewhere behind those words.

The SlowMo Marathon asked participants to run, in Baywatch slow motion, for 1,000 feet. They were judged on style, hairdo and outfit. Along with Alexandra, fellow Baywatchers Zac Efron, Ilfenesh Hadera and Kelly Rohrbach were on hand to weigh in on the competition. Original TV series stars Erika Eleniak, Nancy Valen, Donna D’Errico and Kelly Packard were also there. See, now promotion like this and the fact that the film cannot take itself seriously tells me I’m going to enjoy it. Okay, that and because Alexandra said, “You’ll be seeing probably more penises than you will boobs.” The film comes out May 25th.

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Photo credit: WENN and Getty Images

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68 Responses to “Alexandra Daddario: ‘I’m getting my revenge by being a Baywatch babe’”

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  1. Daisy says:

    Of course she was a nerd and couldn’t get guys. Of course :eye roll:

    • ell says:

      i was a nerd (still am) and couldn’t get guys, until suddenly i could because i grew into my looks. it happens to tons of people, the way you look as an adult isn’t necessarily the way you looked as a teen.

      • Daisy says:

        It’s not that it’s not possible, it’s that 99% of Hollywood starlets seem to be nerds who blossomed. It’s such a tired cliche.

      • QueenB says:

        Like Daisy said: Of course that happens but basically everyone in Hollywood tells u that. They all also were bullied.

    • Maria_ says:

      “It’s not that it’s not possible, it’s that 99% of Hollywood starlets seem to be nerds who blossomed. It’s such a tired cliche. ”

      my thought exactly XD

    • loveotterly says:

      Actors that come from an acting background (not modeling) usually were nerds in high school. Drama club wasn’t exactly cool.

    • tealily says:

      For whatever reason, I actually believe her. I get strong nerd vibes off her in the best way possible.

    • hannah89 says:

      @daisy, your eyeroll says more about you than it does her.

    • emilybyrd says:

      This woman is frickin’ 31 years old (just googled her out of curiosity). I’d be pretty down on myself if I was still trying to impress people I went to high school with (especially high school boys, for goodness’ sakes!) at that age!

  2. Ashley.Nate says:

    Her breasts are Baywatch worthy. Her face…not so much lol

    • V4Real says:

      Is it so wrong that I was thinking the same thing. 🙂

    • lannisterforever says:

      I think she has a stunningly beautiful face. Different strokes I guess…

    • steph says:

      She looks different in movies. She was in Kick ass and i thought she was really pretty.

    • Betsy says:

      That’s really shallow and unnecessary.

      • Susan says:

        Betsy, this actress literally valued her self worth by reference to her ability to land a role based on a bathing suit and her ability to lord her “hotness” over people from her past. I think, therefore we can all be excused from claims of shallow and unnecessary. She invited and preened on just this sort of critique.

      • Ashley.Nate says:

        Honey, she’s the one that made it all about her looks. Don’t come for me 😄😒

      • tracking says:

        Everything Baywatch-related is really shallow and unnecessary.

    • hannah89 says:

      @Ashley.Nate & @Susan @ Maria_; company: wow…. completely disagree, I think she’s stunning. Her eyes are like pool portals.

      I would love to see what you guys look like btw lol……so many rockthrowers in the comments and it’s usually from women who are insecure with their own looks.

      You guys are the same women who hate on attractive women like her telling these stories (that, gasp, actually happen a lot), and then freak out when anybody dares critique your looks or other women normal looking like you. It’s internalized misogyny/hypocrisy 101. if you want to know how men continue to pit us against each other – well you guys should look in the mirror.

      • Snowflake says:

        Yeah, I agree with you Hannah. No need to beat her up on her looks because she mentioned it.

  3. Kezia says:

    Astonishing how many actresses “were nerds” 🙄🙄, who also happen to be stunning- give me a break! It’s an annoying trope at this stage.

    • Originaltessa says:

      i came into my body around 19-20. High Scool was an awkward time. Wasn’t really sure how to dress or do my hair and makeup, my skin was all over the place, I felt awkward so therefore I was awkward. By the time I was in college I really started to feel myself and the people around me responded. The funny thing is that looking back, I was a really beautiful girl in high school, I just couldn’t see it at the time so no one else could.

      • Naddie says:

        It happens exactly like that. I remember well that many of the “hot pack” weren’t actually pretty, but they saw themselves this way and guess, the world responded to it. It actually happens in adult life too.

    • Adele Dazeem says:

      I’ve found that MOST people that are terribly attractive in their 20s, 30s, weren’t so much in high school. Remember, usually the top dogs in high school blossomed and peaked early. Late bloomers tend to age a little better.

      For some reason I kinda buy her story!

    • lizzie says:

      seriously. she was a child actress and was pretty damn beautiful. it reminds me of the meme of a girl posting a normal high school picture and a glam current picture with the caption about how people said she was ugly in high school and someone comments “i went to high school with you, no one called you ugly. just post your picture” LOL

  4. Brunswickstoval says:

    I really hope my daughters grow up in a world where being the nerd IS ENOUGH.
    One of my girls loves science and maths and wants to train at NASA. I’d hate her to give that up to be a Baywatch babe, or to even think she had to to get a man.

    • Nilber says:

      I am raising a 13 yr old boy and all hope is not lost for the smart girls. I listened to a conversation between a group of them while they were discussing girls. They made mention of looks (of course) but then the next comment was ” What would you talk about?”
      That amused me to no end. They were more interested in the ones that has a brain. Granted i knew my son feels this way because he likes to debate and a girl that can argue intelligently is his thing.

    • Maria_ says:

      I can not put an emoji of applause but you deserve it.

      • tracking says:

        +1 So glad to know there are boys out there like this. Mama done raised him right.

  5. littlemissnaughty says:

    I won’t lie. I occasionally see some of my old classmates on facebook or hear about them from someone and think “oh you really didn’t grow up as hot as you thought you would, did you?” and feel quiet satisfaction. Is it classy? No. I don’t care. They weren’t classy when they called me fat etc. so I don’t feel the need to be better. And I don’t even mean “hot” in the superficial sense but their entire person. Once an asshole, always an asshole.

    ETA: I’m not sure these people always use the term nerd correctly. But who knows.

    • Brunswickstoval says:

      I agree re not using nerd the way I interpret its use.

      • slowsnow says:

        Nerd: used to be a regular looking girl at school with some acne and a bit awkward, did not make waves and got on with my life with acceptable grades.
        So, not a nerd! LOL

      • Brunswickstoval says:

        For me nerd is someone who is interested in science and maths or something to the point of exclusion. Nothing to do with looks except they generally don’t care.

    • Eleonor says:

      Same here.
      And good revenge stories.
      I remember two episodes that really hurt me in highschool.
      14 years old: I had a crush for a boy, I was shy, someone told him, and had “the kindness” to tell me his reaction: “her mouth is too big, it looks like a oven”.
      All I have are naturally fuller lips…but at the time everything was out of proportion.
      Years later in my 20’s I was in a club, and I saw him, and I recognised immediately, over the years he had lost hair and gained weight. And he still was an I-diot. He started hitting on me, clearly I wasn’t the same. So I told him we used to take the same bus to school, and we started talking about old times, etc. etc. and when he asked me out I said something like
      “Clearly you don’t remember me, but I bet my mouth does not look like a oven anymore”.
      His face was priceless, because suddenly he remembered who I was.

      Second: once I wore a tighter shirt, only because I liked it.
      I wasn’t fit I had some extrapounds, and I was 17. I remember a guy telling me I was too fat for that. I had the gut to answer: “I can still loose weight, but I really doubt you can grow a brain”. Still I went back home crying.

      • littlemissnaughty says:

        Weren’t those just the best friends who would relay the sh*tty things someone else had said behind your back? I remember it well. This one very overweight boy once came up to me and felt the need to tell me that another guy had insulted my weight. Guess he needed to feel better about himself.

      • Eleonor says:

        They were…

      • greenmonster says:

        @littlemissnaughty: yip, best friends ever. I remember a ‘friend’ of mine and I coming across some other kids when we were about 14 or 15. My friend claimed one of the others yelled something about her having a butt like a horse. I hadn’t heard anything – I swear. But I told her to not give anything about it, esp. since she was thin. A few weeks later, she tells me she had talked to one of the other kids about what was said. Then she HAD to tell me, that the kid basically apologized to her because they didn’t mean her. They meant me of course.
        Right there I knew exactly what kind of friend she was and that was it.

      • littlemissnaughty says:

        God how I do not miss high school.

        I wasn’t bullied, to be fair. Just the everyday instances of teenagers being raging assholes. I wasn’t unpopular or anything, just a bit fat. Until I was about 17. But man did those years before then have an impact.

      • Deering says:

        Littlemissnaughty–yeah, those besties were just wonderful, right? :p In college, I crushed on this handsome guy and told a friend about it in confidence. She knew him slightly. She had the nerve to not only rat me out to him, she gleefully relayed his disgusted reaction. Suffice to say, I got over him–and quit talking to her. Guess in a way, you could say it was a win-win in the long run. 😉

  6. Doodle says:

    I love this marketing. A marathon in slow motion is hilarious!

    I was never the hot girl until the month after I got married, when I had lost weight and was stress free and happy. I had guys tripping over themselves to stand next to me in the elevator. It does happen.

  7. Tig says:

    I think she was prob half-serious/half joking. Everyone has their teenage years story. What a hoot it is that Baywatch has the “legs” ( ha ha!) that it has.

  8. slowsnow says:

    Wake me up when someone says “I used to be a hottie and now I’m a nerd. I love making fun of my botox-obsessed, tanorexic old mates from school while I sashay away from conference to conference giving awesome lectures”.
    Now THAT’S🤓 a revenge story 😏

  9. Naddie says:

    This “look how hot I am now” trope is hella boring, but I might not understand it so well since I was never bullied (constantly), neither craved for guys’s attention, or wasn’t exactly an ugly duckling. Some people say high school is never over, and I’m starting to believe it. If she cares enough to point it on an interview, she’s still the needy nerd inside (she was kidding but she wasn’t).

  10. akua says:

    Well, have anyone seen her brother, boy he is handsome

  11. Nebby says:

    I always give a side eye when I hear these stories “the boys/girls didn’t find me attractive in high school. I was such a nerd….” Yeah you’re not entitled to ppls feelings of attraction, and bc someone doesn’t find you physically attractive it doesn’t make them a jerk. the guys that didn’t like my small boobs and awkward face in high school didn’t matter to me then, so there’s no need for revenge now.

    • Naddie says:

      Exactly. There were many guys you and I didn’t find attractive either. Unless they treated us badly due to our looks, there’s no need to wish them to want to bang us now.

  12. Tata says:

    She did not wow me as an actress on white collar. Every time I saw her she was flatly saying her lines. Just zero personality evident. But very pretty, yes. A dime a dozen in hollywood, so I am not surprised she is ending up on baywatch.

  13. Ashley says:

    Isn’t she with Logan Lerman?

  14. Artemis says:

    Yet people keep claiming beauty doesn’t matter but then turn around and agree that becoming beautiful is an achievement that trumps everything else? Why else have this ‘take that’ attitude? As if those highschool boys have ever thought about her since? I mean, it’s fine to be that superficial and vain, do you and all, but society needs to stop pushing this ‘real beauty comes from the inside’ crap.
    There’s nothing wrong with being a nerd but clearly it’s not enough if you don’t have the beauty to match it. Any achievement without beauty is really overlooked most of the time which is why superficial beauty is so coveted and rewarding!

    • detritus says:

      I think this is what bothers me.

      “I was a nerd, and I had no self worth, but now I’m hot and I love it!”

      It’s not addressing the system, it’s fitting in to it.

  15. Crackfox says:

    Was she in Horror Story: Hotel?

  16. greenmonster says:

    She is 31. Why is there a need to show her former (male) classmates how hot she is now? They didn’t want to be with her in high school – big deal.

    • OhDear says:

      That’s what I thought, too. I mean it’s one thing if she were in her very early 20s, but otherwise it’s weird, almost sad, on multiple levels.

      • SleepyJane says:

        I agree. By the time I was 25 I was completely over trying to validate myself because of those who may have deemed me unworthy in high school.

    • Originaltessa says:

      It’s hard to judge tone from a print interview. I imagine she was just kidding around. Like I was a nerd, and look at me now, boys! Like, it’s for fun. It’s a fun movie. She’s playing a Baywatch babe. It’s all silly, and the movie isn’t taking itself seriously, and I think the actors are all just having fun with it.

    • Lucy2 says:

      She’s 31??? I thought she was early to mid 20s.

  17. Tiffany says:

    That outfit, just…. no.

  18. Angel says:

    Saw the trailer over the weekend , looks really good actually…funny, dumb, hot people fighting crime:)

  19. Blaire Carter says:

    She has the most beautiful eyes.

  20. Stephanie says:

    I’m for all the Daddarios. Have you seen her little brother Matthew? He’s on Shadowhunters. He is so damn hot.