Dakota Blue Richards (born April 11 1994) is an English actress. Her debut was in the recently-released film The Golden Compass, as the lead character Lyra Belacqua. She has also been cast as the lead in another movie, The Secret of Moonacre, which is expected to be released in 2009..

Biography

Early life

Richards was born in South Kensington, London, the daughter of Michaela Richards, a social worker. Her father's identity is not public; his name does not appear on her birth certificate and she was raised solely by her mother. She was named Dakota Blue because her mother wanted a combination of a place-name and a color. Dakota was inspired by the Sioux tribe, with whom her mother had become friendly during a year in America; her mother also liked that it was unusual as a name. Blue was Dakota's father's nickname, and her mother thought it went well with Dakota.

The family moved to Brighton shortly after Richards was born, where she attended St Paul's Primary School. At weekends she took drama classes and sometimes missed school to go to auditions. She was an active participant in class assemblies and school plays, but missed out on the part of Mary in the nativity play. At 11 she moved onto the nearby K-BIS Theatre School. She had always enjoyed acting, but considered it "just a fun little hobby thing" and "never really thought I'd get into doing it professionally".

Career

In June 2006, it was announced that Richards had been cast in the lead role of Lyra Belacqua in The Golden Compass.

When she was nine years old, Richards had had the His Dark Materials books read to her by her mother. She immediately loved Lyra, feeling that she could "relate to her". After she saw the stage adaption at the National Theatre, she says she "just wanted to be Lyra". Richards found out about the auditions for the film from a family friend, who saw an item on CBBC's Newsround. She was desperate to go but had to convince her mother. Her mother agreed to take her, but only if it wasn't raining and on the condition that she wouldn't be too upset when she wasn't chosen. Richards attributes her success at the audition to her mother's suggestion of not brushing her hair that day, so that she would look "wild", like Lyra. She was given a callback to the London casting office, along with 60 other girls, followed by a second recall and a screen test.

Philip Pullman, author of the books, said that, "As soon as I saw Dakota's screen test, I realised that the search was over." He also described her as "marvellous" and "a very good actress". Chris Weitz, the director, added that Richards "made what should have been an extremely difficult decision quite easy" and that he "was surprised that any young girl, especially one without training, could light up the screen as she does." Richards received the call from the director to tell her she had got the part after a bad day at school. Trying to put him on speaker phone, her mother accidentally hung upon on him instead and he had to call back to give her the news. Although excited to have the part, Richards hardly believed it was happening until she was called for her costume fittings.

Filming began on 4 September 2006. Because Lyra appears in almost every scene, Richards was required on set for 98 out of the 100 days they spent shooting. She received private tutoring from two individual tutors on set between takes but says that it was "harder to engage with the school work" because of the way it was constantly interrupted by filming; however she also says, "I think I actually improved academically from being privately tutored." At weekends she went home to Brighton and caught up with her friends, finding that, on set, "being the only child for long periods can get lonely". Initially she was nervous of her famous co-stars but found them to be "nice". The movie was released worldwide in December 2007.

Richard's portrayal in the film was overall well-received, although the degree to which critics praised her varied widely. Her performance was variously described as "efficient", "a decent job", "nicely played" and "enchanting"; one review called her "terrific casting", but others noted that her "Artful Dodger-ish 'urchin' accent [...] comes and goes a bit" and that she "struggles with lumpy dialogue". Pullitzer Prize winning critic Roger Ebert was more effusive calling Richards "a delightful find" who is "pretty, plucky, forceful, self-possessed, charismatic, and just about plausible as the mistress of an armored bear and the protector of Dust." Richards has been nominated for several awards for her role as Lyra including a Critic's Choice Award.

Before The Golden Compass was even released, Richards had already been cast as the lead in another movie: The Secret of Moonacre, a second book-to-film adaption, in which she would play Maria. Principal photography took place between early October and late November 2007. The film will be released in 2008.

Personal life

Richards has said that she would like to continue acting, but not as a full-time job because she doesn't want to be "constantly acting going from one film to another" as she thinks that would be "very lonely". Instead, she wants to combine it with being a substitute teacher. Previously she had also considered becoming a vet, but decided that she would find putting animals to sleep too upsetting. There have been many fan sites posted on the internet now, access is available to anybody who does not abuse the Terms and Conditions. Dakota also keeps an official blog online that you can check for regular updates. Dakota has written "I do have an account on facebook but I hardly ever use it so don't bother to add me". Sources tell us that she does have bebo and her account name is YouuChoose but she will not accept those who she doesn't know.

Filmography

Year !	! Title !	! Role
2007	The Golden Compass	Lyra Belacqua
2009	The Secret of Moonacre	Maria
2009	The Subtle Knife	Lyra Belacqua

Awards

Year	Organisation	Award	Film	Result
2007	Broadcast Film Critics Association	Critics' Choice Award	The Golden Compass
	London Film Critics Circle	Breakthrough Award
2008	Young Artist Awards	Best Performance in a Feature Film – Leading Young Actress
	Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films	Saturn Award

References

External links