- - Alexandra Daddario Says It’s Important to Let Kids ‘Be Who They Are’ as She Debuts New LGBTQ+ Drama (Exclusive)

Eric AnderssonNovember 6, 2025 at 2:38 AM

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Alexandra Daddario on Oct. 27 in N.Y.C. -

Alexandra Daddario tells PEOPLE about letting kids "be who they are" as she debuts her new LGBTQ+ coming of age drama I Wish You All the Best

The White Lotus alum plays a woman who takes in her nonbinary sibling (Corey Fogelmanis) after they're kicked out of the house by their parents

Daddario, who welcomed her first child last year with Andrew Form, says she was "trying to be a mother at the time" when she filmed the movie

Alexandra Daddario understands the importance of letting kids be who they are.

In her new drama I Wish You All the Best, the White Lotus Emmy nominee, 39, plays Hannah, a North Carolina woman who takes in her younger teenage sibling Ben (Corey Fogelmanis) after they come out as nonbinary and their parents (Amy Landecker and Judson Mills) kick the high schooler out of the house.

Starting over with Hannah and her husband Thomas (Cole Sprouse), Ben begins to thrive at a new school, finding a mentor in eccentric art teacher Ms. Lyons (Lena Dunham) as well as a boyfriend (Miles Gutierrez-Riley). But before long, Ben’s parents return with threats and manipulation, throwing the new life Ben has built into question.

Daddario filmed the movie — directed by Tommy Dorfman and based on the 2019 young adult novel of the same name — before she and husband Andrew Form welcomed their child in October 2024. Since becoming a mom herself, the actress says she’s even “more horrified” by the actions of Ben’s parents.

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Cole Sprouse, Corey Fogelmanis and Alexandra Daddario in 'I Wish You All the Best.'

“I know it's not easy to raise kids,” says Daddario. “Yes, you have to guide them, and yes, you have to have loving discipline. But I think allowing children to be who they are — because they're going to be different than you, they're going to be their own person. I can't imagine ever trying to force my child to be something that they're not.”

Daddario says she was drawn to the role of Hannah — who is also a mom to a new baby — after identifying with the script.

“I thought it was an important story,” she says. “I was trying to be a mother at the time. I'd wanted to be a mother for years and years, and I was trying to have a baby. And I think the role of playing the mom who is trying to guide young people through life was something I was interested in.”

Daddario and Fogelmanis share several touching scenes, and the Mayfair Witches star says she felt maternal towards him and learned from him at the same time.

“He's such a wonderful actor and I respected the work he was doing,” she says of the Girl Meets World star, 26. “I was so impressed by him. And he's got this. So I felt just really connected with him and really lucky that I was able to work with someone so wonderful, who helped me be so open and helped bring the relationship alive between the two characters.”

Theo Wargo/Getty

Corey Fogelmanis, Alexandra Daddario and Tommy Dorfman on Oct. 27 in N.Y.C.

Daddario, who was raised in New York City by her lawyer parents, says her own adolescence helped her connect to the material. “There were definitely difficult periods where I wasn't that understood,” she says. “And I think what I really needed as a kid was someone like Hannah.”

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Alexandra Daddario and Andrew Form on Sept. 13.

Her next project is quite a pivot from I Wish You All the Best — over the summer, she filmed the upcoming biopic Hershey. Set in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it tells the rags-to-riches story of chocolate empire founder Milton Hershey (Finn Wittrock) and his wife Kitty Hershey (Daddario), who used their fortune to fund a school.

“It really is a lovely story of two really decent human beings that did something wonderful for the world,” says Daddario.

I Wish You All the Best is in theaters nationwide on Friday

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”