His Dark Materials: Golden Compass movie's Lyra gives verdict – 'I HAD to watch it alone'

Back in 2007, New Line Cinema set about adapting Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials as a movie trilogy. However, only the first book, Northern Lights, was made; being given the novel’s American title, The Golden Compass. Lyra was played by Dakota Blue Richards in the film and now she’s watched the BBC’s TV adaptation and given her verdict.

Appearing on His Darker Materials podcast, she said: “It’s kind of strange to watch it.

“I watched it alone because I thought this is something I want to do by myself and not have other peoples’ opinions about it.

“What’s interesting about the series is I think because they have so much more time than we had, they get to fill that time kind of however they like.

“And there’s a lot of bits you see in the show that you don’t necessarily see in the books and certainly didn’t see in the film.”

READ MORE: His Dark Materials: Why are they taking the children to the North?

Richards said: “I think the biggest difference for me watching it between myself and Dafne is she… firstly she’s a little bit older than I was at that age.

“She’s 14, I was like 11 or 12, and at that age, a couple of years makes a world of difference.

“But also she is a professional actress, she’s proved her talent well before coming onboard this project.

“So her approach to it is much more considered, and there’s a maturity to her portrayal of Lyra that probably wasn’t in mine, but I think that’s because I was younger, but I had no acting experience and I had no sense of the world I was getting myself into.”

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She added: “So I see them as quite different, but maybe other people don’t, I don’t know.”

While His Dark Materials is expected to also cover The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, Richards only got as far as filming The Golden Compass.

Director Chris Weitz has gone on record saying the movie was a bad experience.

Speaking in 2009 at Comic-Con, the Twilight New Moon director said: “The last film that I made was recut by the studio, and my experience with it ended being quite a terrible one.”