Dafne Keen on playing “force of nature” Lyra Belacqua on His Dark Materials

I’m continually impressed by the child stars who enter the arena of acting and manage to blow it out of the water. We’ve had the likes of Millie Bobby Brown in Netflix’s Stranger Things, or McKenna Grace who is literally in everything you can think of. Seriously, go look at her IMDb page. And we can’t forget actors like Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams over on Game of Thrones, who wore the parts like gloves right from the start.

One particular child star who caught my eye some time ago was Dafne Keen. Back in 2017, she won over our hearts acting opposite Hugh Jackman in Logan, playing the volatile Laura. More recently, we’ve seen Keen kill it on the TV adaptation of His Dark Materials, where she plays the lead role of Lyra Belacqua alongside A-list celebrities like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ruth Wilson.

Keen recently spoke to Gold Derby about playing Lyra, and what she and the character have in common. If she’s anything like Lyra, I think Dafne Keen just might be my favorite human being.

“I loved that it’s a young female lead,” Keen said. “She is a character that is a young woman with no sort of sexual power whatsoever…She is literally relying on who she is, her determination, her strength. It would have helped me when I was growing up to see a girl who is genuinely a force of nature.”

Keen makes an excellent point about Lyra’s power here. Too often, woman and even girls in television and film are sexualized; if they have power, it’s through seduction. But Lyra takes on an oppressive regime with just her wits and grit.

Lyra’s curiosity allows for people of all ages to connect and relate to her. Don’t we all have that part of us that wants to stand up against injustice and take on the world? At the very least, I’d love my own dæmon (an external manifestation of one’s “inner-self” in the form of an animal; everyone in Lyra’s world gets one).

Speaking of dæmons, Keen touched on how they go about working the animal familiars into a scene. “Nothing you see on camera is random,” she said, detailing how she must work closely with puppeteers to memorize the moves and choreography of her dæmon so she can act accordingly once the puppeteer leaves. Dang, I’d mess that up really quick.

His Dark Materials Dafne Keen as Lyra Belacqua with daemon Pantalaimon. HBO

As far as Lyra’s journey goes, Keen says that what Lyra is looking for most is “people to love her and for her to trust.” Although she’s very young, Lyra has already been betrayed by multiple people very close to her, which has to hurt. Still, she keeps trying, which has taught keen a lesson:

"No matter who you are or what you are, even if you think you can’t do it, there’s no point in saying ‘no I can’t do it. [When the universe tells you ‘no,’ it’s] your job is to see if the universe’s ‘no’ is correct or not."

A star wise beyond her years, indeed!

Oh, and if you’re wondering when we’ll dive back into the world of armored polar bears and dæmons, you’re in luck. Despite productions across the world being halted due to the coronavirus, it appears His Dark Materials filmed its first two seasons back to back. It was a conscious decision to keep the young stars of the series from aging out of their roles, and it’s seemingly like a particularly good call right about now.

We can expect to get a second season some time this year, despite the coronavirus still causing production delays for many other shows. As for a third season? Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

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