Dakota Blue Richards - Career - The Golden Compass

In June 2006, it was announced that Richards had been cast in the lead role of Lyra Belacqua in The Golden Compass.

When she was nine years old, Richards had the His Dark Materials books read to her by her mother after a friend encouraged her to read the trilogy. She immediately loved Lyra, feeling that she could "be her". After she saw the stage adaption at the National Theatre, she says she "just wanted to be Lyra". Richards found out about the auditions for the film from a family friend, who saw an item on CBBC's Newsround. She was so desperate to go but had to convince her mother. Her mother agreed to take her, but only if it wasn't raining and on the condition that she wouldn't be too upset if she wasn't chosen. Richards attributes her success at the audition to her mother's suggestion of not brushing her hair that day, so that she would look "wild" like Lyra. She was given a callback to the London casting office, along with 60 other girls, followed by a second recall and a screen test.

Philip Pullman, author of the books, said that, "As soon as I saw Dakota's screen test, I realised that the search was over." He also described her as "marvelous" and "a very good actress". Chris Weitz, the director, added that Richards "made what should have been an extremely difficult decision quite easy" and that he "was a bit surprised that any young girl, especially one without training, could light up the screen as she does." Richards received the call from the director to tell her she had got the part after a bad day at school. Trying to put him on speaker phone, her mother accidentally hung up on him instead and he had to call back to give her the news. Although excited to have the part, Richards found it difficult to believe until she was called for her costume fittings.

Filming began on 4 September 2006. Because Lyra appears in almost every scene, Richards was required on set for 98 out of the 100 days they spent shooting. She received private tutoring from two individual tutors on set between takes; she commented that it was "harder to engage with the school work" because of the way it was constantly interrupted by filming; though she also noted, "I think I actually improved academically from being privately tutored." At weekends she went home to Brighton and caught up with her friends,. She noted at the time that, on set, "being the only child for long periods can get lonely". Initially she was nervous of her famous co-stars but found them to be "nice".

The film was released worldwide in December 2007. Richards' portrayal in the film was not well received by critics, although the degree to which critics praised her varied widely. Her performance was variously described as "efficient", "a decent job", "nicely played" and "enchanting"; one review called her "terrific casting", but others noted that her "Artful Dodger-ish 'urchin' accent comes and goes a bit" and that she "struggles with lumpy dialogue". Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Roger Ebert was more effusive, calling Richards "a delightful find" who was "pretty, plucky, forceful, self-possessed, charismatic and just about plausible as the mistress of an armoured bear and the protector of Dust."