She had auditioned for the first season for the role that ultimately went to Alexandra Daddario. White brought her back for the second. She played Daphne, the dippy-like-a-fox wife to Theo James’s Cameron. But she somehow brought heart and savvy to Daphne, an oblivious homemaker who can’t remember if she voted. Her Daphne was a realist, a hedonist and, like Fahy, a great hang.
White said that her work in front of the camera felt effortless, even mysterious. “She has the quality that every actor wants: You really like her, but she’s elusive,” he explained. “You want more.”
Fahy described her months on “The White Lotus” as “nothing short of spectacular.” She loved the hotel, she loved the surrounding towns, and very quickly, she loved her co-star, the English actor Leo Woodall, who plays an increasingly sweaty grifter.
“Can you imagine going and having the best experience in the world professionally and also falling in love?” she said. They didn’t share any scenes, and Fahy hadn’t seen his previous work. Once the show aired, she finally saw him act.
“I was like, Oh, my boyfriend’s really good,” she said. They now share a home in Brooklyn.
One more good thing came out of “The White Lotus”: “Drop.” Landon had watched her season and admired how much empathy she brought to the role, all while sitting at cafe tables. Fahy’s character, Violet, out on her first date since her husband’s death, is also trapped at a table for most of the movie. (While at dinner, she receives messages from an unknown sender who tells her that if she wants her son to live, Violet must kill her date.) Fahy was an obvious choice.
“No one sits at a table better than her,” Landon joked. Then he turned more serious. “She has all these different elements and layers to her,” he said. “We all have our hopes and fears and secrets. She plays to that.”
