His Dark Materials star Dafne Keen hits out at Disney films for regressive stereotyping, calling them “extremely bad” for girls.
British-Spanish actress Dafne Keen has drawn plenty of plaudits for her portrayal of Lyra Belacqua in HBO’s His Dark Materials, although other fans might know her from Ana, or as Wolverine’s sidekick Laura in Logan.
She’s definitely a talent to watch…and to listen to, because she’s quite outspoken. Talking to Elle, Keen sounded off about the affect Disney movies are having on young girls. “Disney movies, if you watch them back, were extremely bad for a girl to see, even the ones which aren’t so old. They’re dangerous because you can’t place your finger on what’s really wrong. I think we’ve got a long way to go.”
Between Laura and Lyra, Keen seems to specialize in playing fierce, headstrong women who don’t conform to the stereotype of a Disney damsel in distress or use their sexuality to get things done, something Keen notices even in characters she admires, like Mystique from X-Men, a favorite of hers.
So far, Keen is glad that the people behind His Dark Materials have avoided these tropes. “They did a really good job with everything about her. In season 1 she jumps into really intense relationships with people, but that’s not going well for her, so , she’s much more mistrusting. She’s having a rough time, I’d say.”
Clearly, Keen has a lot of affection for this character, as she explained to ComicBook.com earlier this year, Keen expounded further: “I love how real she is. I don’t know, I feel like many characters girls see nowadays are unobtainable. They’re too put on altars. What I love about Lyra is that she’s human. You’re not looking up at her … You think, ‘Oh, I can be like her, it’s in my human capabilities.'”
"She’s not doing anything that you go, ‘Well, that’s impossible to do.’ She’s just very relatable. And she’s amazing because she starts off as a not particularly good child and ends up by the end of the books being this amazing person, but still flawed. Because everyone has flaws."
New episodes of His Dark Materials air every Monday on HBO (and earlier if you like in the UK).
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