LOS ANGELES—The disaster-adventure film San Andreas hits theatres this Friday (May 29) and it’s a hell of a spectacle. Tsunamis are surfed in speedboats. Bridges crumble and fall like pieces of Lego. Helicopters do things they have no business doing. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson flexes.

It is possible, however, that the most striking visual effect in the movie comes from a pair of eyes. Bluer than the canopy above the Sea-to-Sky Highway, those eyes are why Alexandra Daddario stands out in every scene she’s in.

San Andreas centres on Ray (Johnson), a firefighter and first responder recently separated from his wife (Carla Gugino) who is trying to save his relationship with his daughter, Alex (Daddario). When the San Andreas Fault is hit with a massive earthquake, Ray tries to ensure the safety of his family.

Coming into the film, Daddario had played Annabeth in the action-adventure Percy Jackson series and a key role that’s indelible to anyone who saw HBO’s True Detective. Still, she wasn’t considered a shoo-in by any stretch of the imagination.

“I auditioned once and then I auditioned for the director [Brad Peyton], and then I met with the director and spoke with him,” the actor tells the Georgia Straight during a private interview. “And what we talked about when we met was: he was so aware of the story and wanting to make the characters real people. He was very much of the opinion that the story was extremely important to the movie.”

Noting that the film’s “absolutely incredible” effects could unbalance San Andreas, Daddario continues: “Without caring about the characters and making them real people, he felt that it wouldn’t be good, and I was extremely impressed.”

After a couple of beats, she adds: “I also liked the fact that I get to play the Rock’s daughter. I thought that was one of the coolest things ever. I feel like now my kids can run around and say, ‘My mom was the Rock’s daughter.’ I don’t have kids yet, but my future children—I just feel like it’s the coolest thing ever.”

While San Andreas is unquestionably a popcorn flick on a massive scale, the terror is very real, with a death count that’s hard to keep track of. The New York native drew inspiration for the role from her own past. “I’m a big believer in sort of sense memory, like using something that you’ve experienced in order to put yourself in the position that the character is in,” she says. “So I did watch videos of 9/11, which is a bit morbid, but it was the only time that I’ve had a feeling similar to this, and I’ve never experienced anything like this before or after.”

When Daddario appeared in True Detective last year as Woody Harrelson’s mistress, the world took notice. That role, for all its intensity, was one that the 29-year-old felt she had to take.

“I did audition for it several times, actually,” she recalls. “But I knew that I wanted to be part of that project because it was something I’d never done before, and I knew that nudity was required, and I didn’t even think about it. I said, ‘I wanna do it,’ and leading up to shooting it, I definitely thought about it and tried to put it out of my mind. It’s awkward, I had never done anything quite like it before, so it wasn’t the easiest thing for me, but I am a very ambitious person and I like to challenge myself. And I’m strangely proud to have been able to do something like that. I think it was a very scary thing, but the younger me is very impressed with myself.”