Like so many men in America, Winston on New Girl is desperately hoping he’ll get to go out with Alexandra Daddario. Daddario reprised her guest-spot on the show last night as one of two new(er) girls in the building where Jess and the guys live; through sheer force of will and beauty, Daddario and her roommate, 22 Jump Street’s Amber Stevens, have managed to get the ever-gullible Winston to be their shelf-repairing, mail-fetching, toilet-unclogging manservant. Daddario talked to Vulture about life after True Detective, the one thing L.A. has over New York, and meeting Bo Obama.
Have you ever been in the kind of situation that your character is in in real life? Getting a guy to carry all the heavy groceries or ᴀssemble your Ikea furniture and letting him think maybe he’ll get something back?
No! In my real life, I’m a pretty self-sufficient person, I think. As lovely as it would be to have somebody sort of always helping me out for free, I think I would start to feel really guilty. Also, I think I don’t know anyone who would be willing to help me out to the extent that Winston is helping us out.
He is really quite committed to sorting your mail and fixing every broken thing in that apartment.
He is. He has a lot of faith that, eventually, it’s all going to pay off. He’s a really good person! He thinks we’re not going to screw him over.
Out of everyone who lives in the loft, which of those characters would have the best sH๏τ with you? Assuming they did all your chores, obviously.
That’s so hard, because I like pretty much everyone! Including Zooey. I mean, I’m such a big fan of all of them, it’s hard to pick. I think, well, Jake Johnson has his head on his shoulders.
You’re really grading on a curve there, because Nick is a pretty dysfunctional guy. It’s a miracle that any of these guys can hold down a job or remember to pay the rent when you think about it.
I wonder that on a lot of shows! Like with Friends, they lived in the most gigantic apartment I’ve ever seen in Manhattan — and I grew up in Manhattan — and I never saw an apartment that large. It’s sort of suspending disbelief.
Are you still in New York?
No, I’m in Los Angeles now. You get a lot more bang for your buck.
Do you miss it, or have you totally crossed over to the sunny side?
I really miss it! When I first got here, I thought L.A. sucked. I hated it. I had this pretentious Manhattan thing. But now I’ve made such a life here, and I’m so happy here. They’re just really different places. I can’t really compare them because there’s great things about both of them. Someday I would love to be able to afford a place in each city and be bicoastal!
What’s the best thing about Los Angeles that you can’t get in New York?
I can have a dog!
I was going to ask you about that! Your dog is the star of your Instagram.
I Instagram and tweet a lot about my dog. I think he is one of the most interesting things about my life right now. All my motherly instincts go toward this dog. I love the dog. He’s a rescue that we got while I was living here, and I got really lucky because he’s pretty easy to take care of, so it’s easy when I travel to get someone to take care of him, because everyone likes him.