Interview: His Dark Materials star Amber Fitzgerald-Woolfe on starring in the BBC drama’s thrilling conclusion (BSL)

As the final series of Jack Thorne’s hit adaptation of Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy continues to air on BBC One, Deaf teenager Amber Fitzgerald-Woolfe tells Liam O’Dell all about starring in the role of Ama, and performing alongside iconic actress Ruth Wilson.

“Initially, I wasn’t really interested and said ‘no, thank you’,” Amber says of the moment she learned of the audition through a text from a family member. “Then I thought, ‘well, let me give it a go’.”

The role the 14-year-old would end up playing was Ama in His Dark Materials. The third and final series of the TV show would draw upon the last book in the trilogy upon which it is based, The Amber Spyglass, in which the young girl comes across a woman (Ruth Wilson’s Mrs Coutler) and her sleeping daughter (Dafne Keen’s Lyra).

“I did the audition and there were two or three rounds, and then they contacted me to say that I can move through the different rounds of the auditions,” Amber explains. “I done it in school via Zoom because obviously coronavirus and then I didn’t hear anything initially. So I was just waiting and my parents said, ‘Oh, we’ve got some good news’, and I was like, ‘what, what do you mean’, and they said ‘you’ve actually got the role’, and I couldn’t believe it at first.”

As a profoundly Deaf British Sign Language (BSL) signer, Amber’s Ama is different to that of the book, who communicates using spoken English. The novel also details her as being from a Himalayan village, yet the stunning cinematography of the TV show was shot in Wales – particularly St Goven’s Chapel, in Pembrokeshire, south Wales.

“It was beautiful,” says Amber. “My mum was actually born in Cardiff herself, so I’m used to going to Wales quite regularly, so that was nice, but Cardiff definitely is a very beautiful place. We filmed in lots of different places – it was wonderful.“

Though it wasn’t all in the Welsh capital. “There was some different places and it was beautiful but all in or around Wales,” she continues. “It was absolutely stunning. It was the perfect for this series, actually – it matched up beautifully.”

Speaking of perfect match-ups, Amber shares most of her screen time with Wilson, who she describes as a “lovely person”.

“Really, really lovely, and so so different from kind of her role,” reveals Amber, “because the role of Mrs Coulter is she’s quite cruel, but actually [she] really got very involved and wanted to learn sign language. We had a BSL consultant there to help her learn the language itself and her lines and she was a very quick learner. It was really natural.

“Before we started doing the acting, I met with Ruth initially in a rehearsal studio to be able to talk about things. We talked about sign names, and we got to know each other a little bit more, which was really nice,” she continues. “As I said, Ruth is very hands-on with wanting to learn sign language and doing a good job and doing the language the service it deserves. They learned basic bits and pieces, but everyone was very excited to see something different as an actor with a BSL user. 

“I have to say, within the film industry and my experience, everyone was really good. They were very Deaf aware, they were very open and it was just a lovely experience.”

As our conversation goes on, Amber praises other members of the cast and the crew. “[Amir Wilson, who plays Will] was really nice and sociable, actually – we got on really well, so that was lovely. And Dafne is lovely too,” she says. “I was very fortunate that the makeup artists – even the hair stylists or the wardrobe – everyone was really wonderful and they made the experience amazing. So I would also just like to say a big thank you.”

While Amber initially wasn’t interested in this opportunity, only to have an incredible experience, the teenager is now more certain about appearing in front of the camera again.

“I would absolutely love to do some more acting, but I suppose [I need] to just wait and see if the opportunities arise,” she says.

His Dark Materials continues on BBC One on Sundays at 7pm, with the whole series available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.

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Photos: Bad Wolf/BBC/HBO.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is an award-winning Deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.