A staris born... DAFNE KEEN
AS His Dark Materials RETURNS FOR SEASON TWO, ITS LEAD TALKS BALANCING HOLLYWOOD WITH HOMEWORK
BEFORE TAKING ON THE LEAD ROLE OF LYRA BELACQUA in the BBC’s adaption of His Dark Materials, 15-year old Dafne Keen was already a hardcore fan – but of the 2OO7 film starring Dakota Fanning and Nicole Kidman, not the Philip Pullman novels. ‘After I’d watched the film a few hundred times, I knew her lines and would impersonate her constantly around the house,’ says Keen. ‘But I never read the books until after my audition.’ She is now, of course, a lover of the books as well as the film, and Pullman’s glowing approval of her performance at the screening premiere even brought her to tears.
Aside from basking in the approval of literary legends, it’s the powerful representation of a young female hero that makes this role so important to her. ‘Usually all of the heroes and leads are men. Then if there is a female lead, she’s often using her sexuality to manipulate people,’ says Keen. ‘What’s amazing about Lyra is that she could completely be a man.’
Lyra’s gender is inconsequential, and Keen hopes this will teach young boys – just as much as girls – that women can be heroes, too.
Growing up in Madrid, the daughter of a British father and Galician mother, David Attenborough was Keen’s own hero. ‘I was desperate to become a marine biologist and do exactly what he does. But then I found out I would have to study maths.’ Acting was a natural backup, after a childhood spent on sets with her actor parents – her mother is now her acting coach – and her career began aged nine on the Spanish series The Refugees. ‘I spent that entire summer holiday filming and it was the best summer of my life,’ she says. Keen still attends her state school in Madrid and acts for the pure love of it, making sure projects stay in school holidays as much as possible. ‘I never considered quitting school to be home-schooled, it wouldn’t be good for my mental health,’ she says. ‘If a project was to massively interfere with my education, it’s not important. It’s school all the way.’
Keen’s next on-screen project was in X-Men blockbuster Logan alongside Hugh Jackman. Keen feared she had no chance against the ‘blonde, classic California girl’ who was her rival in the final audition, but Jackman and director James Mangold (The Greatest Showman) were blown away by her confidence when Keen was asked to spontaneously improvise a scene. ‘I learnt so much from Hugh on set,’ she says. ‘Every Friday, he’d buy stacks of around 4OO lottery tickets and hand them out to every single person in the crew.’ When asked why, he told her that there are so many vital roles in making a film that the actors will never meet naturally, and this gave him a chance to get to know everyone. ‘That really stayed with me. Now I try to meet everyone and learn as many names as I can. He taught me to be humble and grateful.’
Shortly after, her first film lead came opposite The Godfather’s Andy Garcia in Puerto Rico-based Ana. ‘I got to film with people who spoke my language and it was the most beautiful experience,’ she says. Exploring more non-stereotypical Latin roles is high on Keen’s career bucket list. ‘On screen, Latinos are usually the bad guy thugs and that annoys me,’ says Keen. ‘They’re represented as stupid, animalistic, sexual and violent. It’s a form of racism.’
In the future, Keen has plans to take on the theatre world. ‘Doing Shakespeare at the Globe is my lifelong dream,’ she says. ‘My family are huge fans; we have three copies of his complete works in our living room. The Globe is where my parents met, so it’s an important place to me.’ But before that, Keen plans to attend film school to explore film roles behind the camera, including cinematography, script writing and directing. ‘I’m into art in every way,’ she says. ‘I’ll never stop acting but I want to try everything and be around kids my own age for as long as possible.’ Keen may be a rising Hollywood A-lister, but she’s also just a 15-yearold girl. ‘Right now, I’m a kid and my education is my priority.’
His Dark Materials is out now on BBC One and BBC iPlayer
“USUALLY HEROES AND LEADS ARE MEN. WHAT’S AMAZING ABOUT LYRA IS SHE COULD BE A MAN”