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Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra

DAKOTA Blue Richards has landed a dream role - that of the young heroine Lyra in the big screen adaptation of Philip Pullman's Northern Lights. The cinematic treatment of the first part of the His Dark Materials trilogy, known as The Golden Compass, hits cinema screens across the country tomorrow. Here, the budding star talks about her unique experience, and who she'd like to work with next.

Q: Have you always wanted to be an actress?

A: When I was little I used to pretend. I'd be a cat by tying a feather boa to the back of my trousers. Then at the end of the game I'd pull off the tail and say, "Didn't you know, it was me all along!" From the time I was about six I wanted to do plays, and proper acting.

Me and my friends would make up our own plays. The best one I did was called The Fall of Danny. My friend Celeste and me were writing it together. I actually still want to do it, because I think it would be really fun. It's about this guy Danny who falls in love with a woman and falls out of a window and gets buried alive, because the doctor thinks he's dead

Q: How did you find out about the auditions?

A: My mum started reading His Dark Materials to me when I was about nine. And I saw the play at the National Theatre in London. I really liked the character of Lyra, and I really wanted to be Lyra. Then my mum's friend was watching BBC Kids Newsround and heard that a film was being made. She asked me if that was the book I was always talking about.

When I first read the books I was quite young and I didn't really understand a lot of it, I didn't get "dust" and why the bears talked. It took me a while to understand it but in Lyra's position I think it's a very good idea to be good friends with the bears. You would feel very protected: don't mess with me because I have a bear on my side. Iorek is the only being that Lyra lets be better than her: she accepts that he is bigger, stronger, braver and cleverer.

Q: Were you nervous or intimidated at the auditions?

A: My mum and my grandma and me went to the casting call in Cambridge. My mum said we wouldn't go if the weather was bad, so it was lucky it wasn't raining! We waited in the queue for about three hours, and we went into the audition in groups of between 50 and 100 girls. They asked your name, age and where you came from, then some of you got your picture taken and some were asked to read something.

And I was asked to read a second piece. I don't think many girls got to do that.

I was called back with about 60 other girls to the casting office in London. Then I started to feel scared about it because at the first auditions I didn't think I was going to get it so there was no point in feeling nervous. But being called back was like, being given a real chance, and you know it's time to start worrying!

Q: How did you react when you found out the part was yours?

A: I came home after a bad day at school and my mum said we had to wait for a phone call. It was Chris Weitz, the director, and he said, "Can you put me on the speaker phone?" and so my mum hung up on him, because she's not very good with technology, and didn't know what to do. So he called back and told me, and I screamed and was very excited, and did the Snoopy dance! That's very "spinny" and "jumpy" and "kicky", a "leggy" kind of dance

Q: Are you anything like Lyra?

A: Lyra's very brave, she sticks up for herself, and she seems quite confident. She's very loyal. I'm very loyal to my friends and family, but I don't think I'm as brave as Lyra. She lives in Jordan College, Oxford but she dreams of going to the North and meeting the Ice Bears who live there Her best friend is Roger, who works in the kitchen. She and Roger are always going up on the roof of the college - which they're not supposed to - and getting into fights with the town kids, and the gyptian kids by the river.

Q: What was it like working with stars like Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig?

A: The first scene I did in the film was with Nicole Kidman. I didn't have to say anything, thankfully. I was at a table surrounded by loads of other people that I didn't know, and Nicole sat next to me, and I had to act like I knew her. Both she and Daniel Craig do this thing when they are acting which might be just to help me, but they seem so confident that I feel I should be, too. They make me feel more confident about myself and what I was doing.

I think I've learned a lot working with actors as experienced as Nicole and Daniel. They taught me that whatever happens during a take, you should just carry on. Don't ever stop until the director tells you to stop.

Sam Elliott is exactly how I imagined in my head that Lee Scoresby would be. When I read the books, that's how I saw him. I like him because he's kind but he's reserved as well, he's not always in your face. He's very cool. He's relaxed and not really bothered The first time I met the director Chris Weitz at my screentest, he was a bit scary because he decided he was going to play the bear, and he stood on top of the sofa and roared "I am a bear!" And I was just like, okay, I've never met you before and you are really scary right now. But since then I've found that he's a very relaxed person and that makes everybody else relaxed. He never shouted at anybody ever, he's just a really nice person and makes you feel good about yourself.

Q: How did your friends react when you got the part?

A: My friends were really happy for me, they screamed with joy when I told them I was going to be Lyra. Three of my friends are in the film - for the scene where the children escape from Bolvangar. There were about 250 kids in the scene and the man who was casting asked me if I wanted to bring in a few of my friends, so I did. That was fun. And cool.

Q: What was your favourite part of filming?

A: The scenes I enjoyed most - and this may sound strange - were the fight scenes! It was great because I was fighting the Tartar guards, and it was stuntmen who were playing them, and they said to me, "don't worry, you just fight as hard as you can," and I did. They were padded and wearing heavy clothes, so I was able to wriggle and kick as hard as I could.

Q: Were there any embarrassing moments?

A: The most embarrassing moment was falling over on the fake snow. There were lots of other kids running and some of them fell over as well. I fell over not once, not twice, but three times!

Q: Did you manage to keep up with schoolwork while filming?

A: I had a tutor on the set, so when the camera angles were being changed, or there was a lighting change that would take time, I'd go off to lessons. We had a schoolroom at the studio and I had lessons - sometimes for half an hour, sometimes for a couple of hours. I never knew how long. It was quite difficult to switch from being on the set, to being in the schoolroom, but I must have learnt a lot because when I got back to school I was quite far ahead.

Q: Do you have any more movie roles lined up?

A: I'm in another film, The Moon Princess, in Hungary began shooting August 2007 with Colin Firth. The director of the film is Gabor Csupo, and it is adapted from a book by Elizabeth Gouge.

I hope we will make the second book of His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife, so that I can be Lyra again.

Q: What advice would you give to anyone wanting to be an actor?

A: I think if people want to act, they should be themselves, be as natural as possible. I don't think making The Golden Compass has changed me. I hope it hasn't. It was sad at the end saying goodbye because I'd become so close to everybody. But there are still another two books to film and hopefully the same people will come back, and it will be fun to work with them again.

Q: Do people recognise you when you are out and about?

A: I know it may be different once the film opens, but at the moment I am doing what I always did. I'm not sure how it will be when they do recognize me, and I don't know if I'll enjoy that. It's a bit strange now, because the first Golden Compass poster is at the cinemas, and it's a weird feeling I get seeing it. It's sort of me, and not me, if you know what I mean.

Q: What's the most difficult thing about being an actress?

A: I think the worst is when you have to do things over and over. That can become boring, although you have to try to make it slightly different, so it can still be fun. The other really difficult thing on The Golden Compass was the green screen. A lot of the time I had to act to nothing, or to a green sack, or a green dot or a man in a green Lycra suit I had to imagine a green bean bag was my daemon that I really love.

Q: Who would you most like to work with?

A: I don't really know, because I don't know the people. It's hard to judge what actors might be like just from seeing their work. Ewan McGregor seems very cool - I'd like to work with him.

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