Having risen to prominence as the child star of The Golden Compass, young British actress Dakota Blue Richards has made a series of commendable acting choices ever since, epitomised greatly in her appearance in John Jencks’ poignant and unique drama, The Fold.
We had the pleasure of speaking to Richards about her role in the film, and what attracted her to the project. She speaks about the rarity in finding projects with such strong female leads, working alongside Catherine McCormack, and explains how she’s managed to stay so grounded – and clear of the limelight, avoiding the potential issues that come with starting out in the industry at such a young age.
The Fold offers such a fascinating look into grief, and I was wondering what it was about this film that drew you in to the project?
There were a few things. Firstly the story is beautiful, it’s really delicately written and it looks at grief in a completely different way than I’ve ever seen before. I think also the setting of it, being in Cornwall, on the coast, it was so visual in the script and that was something that felt familiar to me because my mum and I spend a lot of time in Cornwall, so I felt very at home when reading it. Also, because it’s three leading, female characters which is very unusual in film today, unless it’s a chick-flick or something, which obviously this film isn’t.
Though rare, it must be positive for you to know projects like this, and parts like this for women, do exist?
It was yeah, it was reassuring, because it’s so rare that I read or get sent a script that has even one female lead, let alone three. When there are female leads sometimes they’re not strong characters, they’re not fully formed. A lot of people assume that you don’t have to do the same character development, you don’t have to make the female characters as rounded because they’re pretty so people won’t care. The amount of times you see in scripts from the character description, the first thing that is used to describe the character is that they’re pretty. It’s such a shame that writers, people who are brilliant at what they do, are so superficial when it comes to writing female characters. But this wasn’t at all. None of the characters are there to be pretty. Nobody is there to be looked at, they’re there because they’re good characters and they build a story.
Going back to your earlier point about spending time with your mother in Cornwall – in the film there’s a real distance between your character and her mum. How was that to portray? Were you able to draw on any teenage rebellion years, or was it something of a disconnect for you?
My mum and I are very close. It’s always basically been me and her when growing up. Single child, single mother. We’ve never had that distance, so that was something that was quite difficult for me to get in to, but also quite sad to play. It’s not nice to see this relationship, they’re obviously in a bad place and you can tell that it upsets them both, so it was difficult to play. It was good because it gives the story another level, but it was difficult to find that distance and not just instinctively be really close to my mother character.
Catherine McCormack turns in an incredible performance – it must make your job so much easier when you’re working alongside that?
Oh absolutely. She was incredible. She’s very experienced and she knows that she’s doing and I felt like I learnt a lot from working with her. A lot about just being very natural in the moment, which is something she does so well. You never for one second think that she’s acting, or that she’s thinking about what she’s doing. It just comes very naturally and that was important for this film, because it’s not supposed to be really dramatic and acted, it’s not a big movie in the sense of having loads of CGI and stuff like that. It’s just a look at very normal, real people, and that’s what makes her performance so good.
As for yourself, you’re rather experienced too as you’ve been doing this a while. Yet you’re still so young.
I still sort of see myself as a beginner, there are people who have been in this industry many, many years longer than I have, so I do feel like I’m taking my baby steps still. The thing is, in this industry, if you choose to, you can learn something new on every job that you do. You can really make it a learning experience and use that in your future work. If you take that approach, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in the industry, because everything is new and everything is interesting and you’re learning all the time. It keeps you feeling refreshed. But it’s weird to know how long I’ve been doing this [laughs] it doesn’t feel like it!
Do you look back really fondly on The Golden Compass, as the role that you needed to help launch your career?
It was my first role, so without that there wouldn’t have been anything. So yeah I look back really fondly, it was a wonderful experience. It would have been wonderful anyway because I was so young and so excited to be there, but they looked after us so well, and I felt like I was really protected from what could have been quite a damaging experience at that age. So I felt that I got the best out of it that I possibly could. It put me on a good track to do what I want to do for the rest of my life.
Many child actors take on roles like this, and then thrust into this limelight, and suffer as a result. You must have been given some good guidance, because you’ve kept yourself to yourself.
Well I don’t get out of cars with no underwear on [laughs]. I think it was really my mum who kept me very grounded, she was always around until I was 16 when I started doing Skins, because legally I had to be chaperoned so she was always there. It was annoying at times to have your mum with you all day, every day, but like I said, we’re really close and having her there was invaluable really. She just reminded me how lucky I was to be there at every moment, and kept me grateful for the opportunities that I’d been given. I went to a normal school with other children around me and I think her ensuring that I got my education in a fairly standard way really helped me remember that this world of film is not everything. Sometimes it’s very far away from the real world. Most of my friends are not actors, or in the industry at all. It’s only been recently that I’ve made actor friends. I’m glad about that because I’m not at a place where I can appreciate what I can learn from other actors, but I’m also grounded enough that I won’t get carried away, and start getting out of cars with no underwear.
Was acting what you always wanted to do?
I never really wanted to act, it was never particularly a desire of me. I was always dramatic when I was a child, and I used to play a lot of games that I guess would point to a career in drama, dressing up and running round the house. It was probably just a product of having no siblings so I would create a lot of games by myself, but proper acting as a career choice was never something I considered. I think I was always too sensible and I thought it wasn’t a realistic goal to have, it’s probably best I keep my goals within reaching distance. So I think at the time of getting Golden Compass I wanted to be a teacher or a vet, for reasons I can’t even remember. I’m not very good at the thought of blood and gore and putting down an animal… That makes me want to die inside. But yeah, I had what I imagined to be realistic aspirations. But thinking about it now, it’s probably even more difficult to become a vet than it is to become an actor. I felt like I stumbled upon acting and was lucky enough to continue and reach the place that I’m at now. Had I not gone to the audition, which I very nearly didn’t, because I didn’t expect anything to come from it, maybe I would be in med school now.
This is the great thing about your career – you can play a vet, or a teacher in a film. Live out those dreams!
Exactly. I haven’t lost anything by becoming an actor. It just means I don’t have to sit the exams!
The Fold is released on March 28, and you can read our review here.
