DAKOTA BLUE RICHARDS: Introducing Lyra

Dakota Blue Richards – the next Daniel Radcliffe? Dakota bursts on to our screens today as the star of The Golden Compass, the first cinematic instalment of Philip Pullman’s fantastical His Dark Materials series. And if the films are even nearly as successful as the books, 13-year-old Dakota’s role as Lyra Belacqua will propel her straight to superstardom.

Dakota Blue, who beat 10,000 girls to the part at open auditions in Cambridge, and was Pullman’s first choice, is a girl more ordinary than her name (which was inspired by her mother, Michaela’s, friendship with members of the Native American Sioux tribe). She grew up in Brighton, fatherless (the paternal space on her birth certificate remains blank) and lives in a flat with her mother, who read His Dark Materialsto her when she was 9. After Dakota saw the National Theatre production in London she told her mother that she wanted to be Lyra. “Because she never had any parents, Lyra thinks no one can tell her what to do,” she says. “She does things other people would be scared of. I don’t let other people tell me what to do. Well, unless it’s my mum.”

At 11, she was enrolled at the K-Bis theatre school near her home and began to attend auditions regularly. “Bright, perky, with quite strong opinions” is how one teacher remembers her. She failed to win the part of Mary in the school Nativity play, just before she found out about Lyra. She attributes her casting to her mother’s simple suggestion that she not brush her hair that day.

This is Dakota’s first professional role and the authenticity of her performance may owe something to her real-life parallels, such as the absent father figure she shares with Lyra. But this rawness works – Lyra is innocent, independent and a little crude. There’s nothing of Radcliffe’s strained and wide-eyed Harry Potter when he first appeared in 2001.

Industry experts estimate that Dakota will have been paid no more than £100,000 for The Golden Compass. But she could go on to make millions. Like Radcliffe, she is likely to be scrutinised mercilessly from now on. Will adolescence favour her with good looks? And will she grow into her parts, like Radcliffe, now estimated to be worth £20 million?

Jack Wild, who suffered from alcoholism after early success as the Artful Dodger in Oliver!, said of child fame: “It’s very difficult and corrupting. You crave fame, but it comes at a very high price.” He once warned Radcliffe “not to take anything seriously”.

But Dakota seems undaunted by imminent stardom. Although she is now filming The Secret of Moonacre with Ioan Gruffudd, she says: “I want to have a job as well, like being a teacher or a vet.” It remains to be seen whether her wonderfully intuitive realisation of Lyra is as artless as it seems.