PERSONAL BEST

For Alexandra Daddario, success comes through hard work, a little levity, and the healing power of acupuncture. (We're talking needles all over!) The actress is dedicated to keeping her mind and body prepared for any challenge.

- Amy Wilkinson

"I DON'T FLY ON A BROOMSTICK OR LEAN OVER A CAULDRON."

It's early afternoon on a Saturday, and 36-year-old actor Alexandra Daddario is explaining, via Zoom from her art-laden New Orleans rental, the mystical nuances of her upcoming TV series Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches, an adaptation of the author's book series that premieres early next year on AMC. Given Alexandra's seriously jampacked schedule of late, it's a wonder she can remember her own name, let alone the biography of the neurosurgeon protagonist she portrays, Rowan, who learns only in adulthood that she is descended from a long line of witches.

Now, if you're curious as to just how truly crammed that calendar of Alexandra's is, here's a quick peek: A mere 48 hours after posing for this Women's Health cover (and still sporting the pretty pink manicure done on-set), Alexandra tied the knot with Hollywood producer Andrew Form at the French Quarter's historic Preservation Hall in front of an intimate gathering of guests. ("I wanted it to feel like a good, easy time without the pressure of convention," she says of the laid-back affair.) Alexandra then returned to production on Mayfair Witches for a handful of days before sitting for this interview. The very next day, she embarked on a "mini-honeymoon" with Form: a road trip through Mississippi and Alabama with the beaches of Florida's panhandle as their final stop.

Alexandra admits the whole planning-a-wedding-while-filming-a-TV-show thing was stressful. But once the vows were exchanged and the second line (the parade recessional leading the wedding party from the venue to the reception) began its march down Royal Street, she was left with a sense of calm. "When I met Andrew, we just both knew," she says. "The wedding was wonderful; it felt a bit like an inevitable conclusion. So I feel really at peace."