His Dark Materials: Dafne Keen And Amir Wilson On Growing Up With Lyra And Will [Exclusive Interview]

It's been two years since Will (Amir Wilson) and Lyra (Dafne Keen) were separated at the end of "His Dark Materials" season 2. The show, which is based on Philip Pullman's novels, returns today with a third season that promises to be more intense than anything we've seen thus far. At this point, the stakes couldn't be higher: The two teens are caught up in an all-out war between the forces of Lyra's father, Lord Asriel (James McAvoy), and basically, God.

"His Dark Materials" may have given way to a monumental battle to save free will itself, but at its core, this was always a story about Lyra — and, of course, Will (once he shows up). They are what ultimately anchor this story. /Film had the opportunity to speak to Keen and Wilson about the show's final season and what it's been like to grow up with these characters.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

You're both playing these kids coming into adulthood while you're growing up yourselves. How has that informed your performance?

Keen: Method acting.

Wilson: Only for the better. I mean, we've obviously grown up in between filming and during filming, and in growing up, I'd say we've got better at our craft or better at doing what we do. And so I only hope that comes across when people watch it.

For sure. Dafne, you spend a lot of time sharing the screen with CGI characters, and yet those scenes are so believable. Can you describe the process of acting opposite characters like Iorek Byrnison or Pantalaimon? What's that like?

Keen: Well, acting alongside Iorek was just such pleasure because I got to act with Joe Tandberg, who's literally one of my favorite people ever. He's just like –

Wilson: Top guy, top guy.

Keen: Just lovely, talented, wonderful, wonderful person. He's incredible. He genuinely just made my job so easy. It was like I was there. He does the voice to perfection. He just clicks into character immediately as soon as they call action. Same with the puppeteers. It's just so helpful to have people on set to act opposite of as opposed to tennis balls, which is usually what would happen. It just makes our lives much easier and it just makes it look so much better in the end.

Amir, Will has a lot to manage going into season 3. He's lost Lyra and his dad, he's got the mission given to him by his father, but also his own mission to find Lyra. Was it difficult to play all of that at the same time?

Wilson: In some ways, yes. I mean, internally making all those decisions about what to do and what's the right thing to do? Follow my father's decision or follow my own wishes, which is to find Lyra? I guess the script kind of does it all for me by playing it out. But it was like ... I personally wouldn't have gone for Lyra. If you're asking me, I would've done what my dad wanted me to do. I wouldn't have fallen head over heels for a girl that I'd known for two weeks. But look, Will's different and Will's a good guy.

Keen: You never know.

Wilson: You never know. And look, it was fun being able to play Will, but also a more grown-up and a mature version of Will was really good for me to play.

What aspect of your character do you most identify with? What keeps you connected to them?

Keen: I think Lyra's spontaneity, to be honest. That's like the trait that we have most. I don't think things through, and I don't think Lyra does either.

Wilson: What part of Will do I like most? I guess it's his way of tackling problems in his life. I feel like he's able to keep calm and collected under stress, I guess, and under a lot of pressure. He's able to do that, and I feel like I can do that sometimes also. Sometimes I can't. But it's also hard to relate to Will, because Will's the perfect person and no one's the perfect person. Will's always doing the right thing and putting himself last and everyone else he loves first. And you want to be like Will. It's ideal to be like Will, but I'm not.

Well, who is? And what did you both struggle with most about playing these characters?

Wilson: I think maybe tackling grief in the show may be a bit of a soft spot for me. I relate to Will's journey on a personal level. And I think it was maybe hard for me to, I guess, portray that on screen and just tackling emotions and how you deal with loss and how you deal with grief. Everyone tackles it in different ways and what works for one person doesn't work for the next. And so I think just me doing that was maybe a bit difficult, but it was fine in the end.

Keen: I'd say it's investigating those darker themes in the show. Grief and stuff. It's just harder to go into those dark emotional places, in a way, because it's accessing parts of yourself that I don't think you are truly comfortable with. In your daily life, you wouldn't necessarily want to go to that place.

Will and Lyra visited some fantastical worlds this season. Was there a set that you were particularly impressed by?

Wilson: Not a set, but we went to Spain to shoot a location, to shoot the last episode, which is, as you can imagine, was amazing.

Keen: We didn't go to film there, but did you go visit the Magisterium set?

Wilson: Oh, the actual Magisterium set? Yeah. I did see that, that was really cool.

Keen: I went to visit, my dad (Will Keen) was filming, because my dad's in the show (as Father MacPhail). I went to visit him while he was filming there and it was so incredible.

Wilson: The Magisterium set was cool, everything's just really in order and kind of perfect.

Keen: It's so good.

Wilson: But Spain was great. Being in a hot country, being paid for it, whilst doing the thing I love, it's three in one.

Keen: Yeah, going to the beach when we wrap, it was just fun.

Oh, that does sound amazing. And lastly, what do you think your daemon would settle as?

Wilson: A bird of prey. An eagle, if I could choose.

Keen: I don't know, I just feel like I'm going to give myself one that's way too cool for me. I mean probably.

Wilson: She wants to say a panther. She's said it every interview, so I'll just go ahead and speak for her.

Keen: I want to say a panther, but I just feel like I wouldn't.

You feel like you would want a panther, but maybe you wouldn't get a panther?

Keen: I wish I was cool enough for a panther, but I just know I'm not. So, I just kind of accept it. Yeah.

"His Dark Materials" season 3 premieres on HBO on December 5, 2022.