From White Lotus to chocolate pioneer
Alexandra Daddario is swapping the luxury resorts of White Lotus for the cocoa-dusted workshops of 19th-century Pennsylvania. The 40-year-old actress stars as Catherine Hershey in Hershey, a sweeping new biopic about the couple who built one of the world's most beloved chocolate empires — and the trailer has just dropped exclusively via People.
Opposite Daddario is Finn Wittrock, 41, who plays Milton S. Hershey, the tenacious chocolatier and businessman who founded The Hershey Company in 1894 after several failed business ventures. The film traces the pair's relationship from their first meeting through five decades of partnership, ambition and — crucially — extraordinary philanthropy, covering the period from the early 1870s through to the 1910s.
It's a story that goes well beyond chocolate. As well as building the company and the town of Hershey, Pennsylvania around it, Milton and Catherine founded the Milton Hershey School in 1909 — a private K-12 institution that covers all costs for its students and continues to operate today.
"Milton and Catherine Hershey's story is one of vision, generosity, and enduring impact — but it doesn't end with them. Today, their legacy lives on through thousands of young people whose lives have been transformed — including my own." — Peter G. Hurt, President, Milton Hershey School
A production on an extraordinary scale
Filming wrapped across 17 locations throughout Pennsylvania in 2025, with a production scale to match the ambition of its subject matter. Over 1,500 background actors were brought in, nearly 300 period-accurate costumes were created for the principal cast — and Daddario alone wore 54 different custom-designed outfits across the shoot. The production also made use of what the filmmakers describe, with some relish, as "countless thousands of pieces of chocolate."
Sitting behind the camera is Mark Waters, best known for directing Mean Girls, while the screenplay comes from Bubba Fulcher, Will Hardy and Timothy Michael Hayes. The supporting cast is equally impressive, with Alan Ruck, David Costabile, Richard Kind and Heléne Yorke among those joining the leads.
For fans of British and American cinema, the film arrives at a moment when prestige biopics are very much back in fashion — and a story centred on one of America's most recognisable brands, told with this level of craft, is likely to attract serious awards attention ahead of its Thanksgiving weekend release.
Off-set, Daddario is just as disciplined
Preparing for a role that required 54 costume changes presumably demands a level of physical stamina most of us can only imagine — and Daddario's fitness regime suggests she has that well covered. Away from the set, the actress has been sharing insights into her training on Instagram, most recently highlighting an advanced core exercise she performs with her long-time trainer Patrick Murphy.
The move in question is a reverse crunch into a shoulder stand — a significant step up from a standard crunch. Rather than pulling the chest toward the knees, the exercise involves curling the pelvis upward, driving the hips into a vertical shoulder stand, and then controlling the slow lowering of the body back to the mat. The result, according to fitness experts, is a far more demanding full-core workout that targets the lower abs and obliques while protecting the lower back — all without the neck strain that plagues traditional crunches.
"The slow, controlled lowering phase is where the magic happens, challenging your core through both lifting and resisting gravity."
It's the kind of methodical, unglamorous dedication that rarely makes headlines but clearly underpins a career that keeps landing Daddario roles requiring serious physical preparation — from Baywatch to the pool scenes of White Lotus and now the physical demands of a costume-heavy period epic.
When can you see Hershey?
Hershey opens in theatres on 25 November 2025 — Thanksgiving weekend in the United States, traditionally one of the most competitive slots in the cinema calendar. With a heartfelt story, a polished cast and what appears from the trailer to be genuine emotional weight, it has every chance of being one of the big films of the awards season. Consider this one firmly on the watchlist.
