Articles & Interviews
Dakota Blue Richards poised for 'Harry Potter'-like stardom
from The OC Register, Dec 6, 2007
by Barry Koltnow
Ten thousand English girls were called, but only one was chosen. Her name is Dakota Blue Richards.
When director Chris Weitz finally made his casting choice of the 12-year-old actress who would play the adventurous Lyra in the new fantasy film "The Golden Compass," he made the phone call himself. This was too big an announcement to leave to a producer or a casting agent.
He called the Richards home in Sussex, and Dakota's mom, Michaela, answered. Weitz wanted to break the good news to mother and daughter at the same time so he told Michaela to put the call on speaker phone. She promptly hung up on him.
But she didn't mean to hang up the phone.
"My mom's a dinosaur," Dakota said without looking up from her breakfast of scrambled eggs and chocolate croissants at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles. It was only a few days into her first visit to the United States.
Michaela Richards blushed as her daughter related the story, and confessed to a general ineptitude when it comes to modern technical devices, such as the telephone.
"I didn't know how to work the speaker phone," she said sheepishly.
Fortunately, the director called back, and changed Dakota's life forever.
"The Golden Compass" is the first part of a proposed movie trilogy, which means that if the first film, which opens Friday, is successful, there will be two more. Dakota, who is now 13, could be the age of a college freshman by the time the third movie is completed.
"Yes, it is a long-term commitment," her mother said of the contractual obligation for her daughter to star in all three films. "But this is one of those unpredictable things that happen in life, and you have to go with it. It is a little frightening, though, because it's like a roller-coaster ride that you can't get off once you're on."
The films are based on a controversial trio of bestselling books called "His Dark Materials," which have remained the target of heated debate since the first book was published in 1995. The author, Philip Pullman, has identified himself as an atheist, and many people believe that his books are anti-religion in general, and anti-Catholic in particular.
Although the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has given its seal of approval to the film ("Intelligent and well-crafted"), the watchdog group the Catholic League has called for a boycott, despite an obvious move by director Weitz to remove all references to the Catholic Church in his movie.
Spokesmen for the Catholic League point to the name in the film of the evil group that wants to steal children's souls. It is called the Magisterium, which the Catholic League says is a Vatican-related term.
Weitz and the studio insist that the movie does not attack the church, but the Catholic League spokesmen said they will not call off their boycott because they believe that a "watered-down" movie might encourage parents to buy the books for their children, and those books "promote atheism to children."
Young Dakota said she was unaware of any religious references when her mother introduced her to the books when she was 9.
"I read them again when I got the role, and I picked up on the religious aspects a lot more. To be honest, I'm not that religious to begin with, so I'm not sure I'm the right one to offer an opinion. I do know that the religious angle is not as strong in the film as it is in the book. There are some subtle hints, but I think you really have to be looking for them to see them."
The movie also stars Nicole Kidman as a scientist who accompanies Lyra on a trip to find a missing friend, and James Bond's Daniel Craig as Lyra's uncle, who is trying to discover the secret of a mysterious substance called Dust. The dreaded Magisterium is trying to stop him. Eva Green is a kind witch, and Sam Elliott is a pilot who befriends Lyra. Meanwhile, everybody goes through life accompanied by a physical manifestation of their psyche called a daemon (it's pronounced demon). Lyra's is a cute little animal that changes shape. Kidman's is a scary golden monkey.
"When I started the movie, I thought about having my own daemon, and I wanted a cat," Dakota said. "Now, it's a ring-tailed lemur or a hedgehog."
When asked why, the young actress shrugs her shoulders. "I have no idea; it changes every day."
A SMALL STAR IS BORN
Despite the natural movie-star name, Dakota Blue said she never wanted to be a professional actress, although she did appear in a few school plays. A friend of her mom's mentioned the auditions for "The Golden Compass," and Dakota and her mom thought it would be fun to go down to the town hall in Cambridge and give it a try.
"I never thought I had a chance, but I really thought I didn't have a chance when I got to the auditions and saw every 9-12-year-old girl in England standing in line. Compared to all those girls, what chance did I have?"
The 10,000 girls were narrowed to 60, then to 8 and finally to two girls, who were given screen tests.
"I'm not very competitive, but I did want the part, especially when it got down to just two of us."
After the speaker-phone incident, Dakota and her mom moved to London for the start of a rehearsal period. Once the rehearsals were completed, the young actress began the six-month shoot.
"I guess you could say it was hard work, but it was always fun," she said. "It was so exciting to work with all those great actors, particularly Nicole because 'Moulin Rouge' is one of my favorite movies. But I also love the character. Lyra is a wonderful character because she has two sides to her. One is the rebellious and courageous side who doesn't care what anybody says. The other is this sweet person who cares about her friends and is searching for her parents.
"It was fun to be her for six months because I got all the benefits and never had to worry about the bad guys."
There have been other perks associated with the job, not the least of which was a studio-arranged visit to the set of the latest "Harry Potter" film, and a personal meeting with Daniel Radcliffe. Since he also spent most of his youth on movie sets, the two had a lot in common.
"He was very nice, and offered me a lot of good advice," she said. "But I think the best advice he gave me was to always surround myself with people who are going to tell me the truth. I think I've done that already."
The only negatives Dakota sees to the sudden movie stardom are the paparazzi.
"To be completely honest, they scare me," she said. "It sounds cool to be famous, but when you show up at a premiere and all those flashes blind you, it's terrifying.
"But I'm a long way from worrying too much about all that attention away from the premieres. Just the other day, I got on a lift (elevator) with Chris (Weitz) and Sam (Elliott). The lift stopped at one of the floors, and a bunch of reporters got on. They made a big fuss over Chris and Sam and didn't even recognize me.
"I was relieved, but I'm not sure how long that will last."