UNITED KINGDOM: Cast members of fantasy film 'The Golden Compass', talk about what their favourite 'daemons' would be if they had them

The world of 'daemons' and the relationships they share with their human partners is brought to life in the film 'The Golden Compass', based on the first of author Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy of novels. The animals called daemons are not demonic beings but more soul-mates, constant companions of the humans found in the pages of the novels, who are able to shape-shift until the onset of adolescence. The daemons play a key role in the plot, as evil 'Gobblers' kidnap children to conduct grisly experiments, involving separating them from their daemon companions. Lyra vows to rescue them. Most of the main daemons in the film were computer-generated by Rhythm & Hues (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). The actors cast as the film's main characters had their own ideas as to which form of daemon would suit them personally. Actress Dakota Blue Richards' character, Lyra Belacqua, had a ferret daemon. Her personal choice, however, was either a ring-tailed lemur, a white hare, or a hedgehog: "I see parts of myself in them," she explained. "Like a hedgehog, I can be very defensive when I want to be and the white hare is quite bouncy and active and stuff and then the same type of thing for ring-tailed lemurs but also with ring-tailed lemurs, when they are lazy and tired they really really just are lazy and lie about." Actress Nicole Kidman's on-screen character, the evil Mrs Coulter, is partnered with a golden monkey. But Kidman herself would prefer a kitten as a daemon: "I like the idea of something soft," she explained. "I love milk so to lap milk, and be stroked and being taken care of, that's fantastic, that's all I want in life." Actress Eva Green, who played a 400-year old witch called Serafina Pekkala, was a little at a loss at the question and chose a frog, she said, "because I'm French". But actor Daniel Craig, who plays Lord Asriel, revealed in the novel to be Lyra's father, professed himself very happy with his on-screen companion, a snow leopard.

ITN Source | November 29, 2007

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