Dakota Blue Richards mini-bio: Dakota Blue Richards (born 11 April 1994) is an English actress from Brighton, most notable for her role as Lyra Belacqua in the upcoming film His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass. She was chosen from 10,000 hopefuls who attended auditions in Cambridge, Oxford, Exeter and Kendal. Richards had acted in amateur productions before, and director Chris Weitz was sure about her: "Usually, it's a gut-wrenching decision...You realize the whole time how much rests on the shoulders of this kid. But I didn't have any doubts about Dakota. She looks not quite tamed, and that's Lyra."
Author Philip Pullman agreed, "I'm delighted with the casting of Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra. As soon as I saw Dakota's screen test, I realized that the search was over. Dakota has just the combination of qualities that make up the complicated character of this girl, and I very much look forward to seeing the film take shape, with Dakota's Lyra at the heart of it."
She had just come home grumpy from a bad day at school when 'The Golden Compass' director Chris Weitz called her. Dakota's mother tried to put him on speaker phone, but accidentally hung up on him. Weitz called back and informed them of the good news. Dakota was previously attending k-bis theatre school where she had drama, musical theatre, singing, jazz tap and ballet lessons.
Dakota later said she found out about the auditions watching BBC Newsround, and that she wouldn’t have gone to them if it had rained.
syler222posted 362 days ago
