Patricia Hodge - Actor When you become as well known as Patricia Hodge you aren’t usually asked to audition or to read for a part. Directors know your work and think they know what is suitable for you. On the one hand this is a blessing, but it can mean the actor always being offered parts within a limited range and finding it hard to break out of that. Patricia Hodge is very aware of the danger of playing Mrs Coulter as a stereotypical wicked stepmother, a kind of Cruella De Vil, her character in His Dark Materials . Patricia sees her differently, and is looking to find the true nature of Lyra’s mother, a person who, however misplaced her actions sometimes are, is always trying to protect her daughter, a daughter she’s never really known, who has grown up without her. Patricia Hodge describes her character’s journey as ‘a kind of therapy’. She has also learned the art of acting with her alter ego, her daemon the Golden Monkey. At the end of the day, she says, she has come to like Mrs Coulter. |  | |
