His Dark Materials’ Mrs Coulter actress reveals how cast brought daemons to life – and why hers doesn’t speak
HIS Dark Materials is set to be the BBC’s most ambitious TV undertaking to date.
The fantasy epic is understood to be costing just shy of £5m per episode, so suffice to say the Beeb are going all out to ensure high production values.
Ruth Wilson, who will play the sinister Mrs Coulter in the drama, spoke out about one of the most costly aspects of the show – the CGI rendering of daemons.
For those unfamiliar with the Phillip Pullman books, daemons are animal manifestations of a person’s soul and are tethered to them with a mysterious connection at all times.
“Everyone’s got a daemon and they are hearing and they are a part of that person, so every scene, there’s at least two characters. That was something to wrap your head around,” Wilson explained.
“Coulter doesn’t really connect with other people and her daemon is her main reflection of herself, so that’s such a unique relationship. Why is it like that and what does it say about her and how does it change as it goes on?” she added.
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Coulter’s Daemon is a golden monkey with piercing green eyes and the uncanny ability to travel considerable distances from her side.
Most daemons can stray just a few metres from their anchor before experiencing crippling pain.
What’s more, unlike other daemons, Coulter’s monkey is nameless and mute, which explains why there’s no voice actor named in the cast.
Wilson explained this as a manifestation of Coulter “silencing herself in some way,” a living symbol of repression.
On the logistical front, scenes were shot with puppets crafted by the production crew, so actors had a physical prop to bounce off of creatively.
However, Wilson reflected that the process initially left her with more questions than she started with.
“Why was she able to separate from her daemon? How does she do that? What does she really believe in? What does she really want? They are all massive questions open to interpretation,” she continued.
“Philip Pullman has given us more license to do that, which is really great. He’s allowed us to dig more into her and to examine why she is who she is and why she makes those decisions and why she does the awful things she does.”
The BBC, in partnership with HBO, has already lined up two series of the show, confident it will be a hit with viewers.
They said the choice to shoot both in one batch boiled down to their lead actress Dafne Keen, 14, who plays Lyra, needing to look the same in keeping with the show’s timeline.