Marisa Coulter
From His Dark Materials
Marisa Coulter was the head of the General Oblation Board and a longtime agent of The Church before she defected. She is the mother of Lyra Belacqua. Her dæmon is an unnamed and strangely reticent golden monkey. She has short black (in the movie blonde) hair and black eyes.
Mrs. Coulter visits Bolvangar, followed by a group of Bolvangar nurses who Lyra eavesdrops on, when the nurses, find her hiding place, they kidnap her, tie her hands and put her and Pan into the intercision device. Lyra screams at them to release her, but they leave her and operate the bank of switches to cut her away from her daemon.
When Mrs. Coulter pops in, she noticed a tied-up Lyra being cut away from Pan and unties her then, half-carries, half-supports Lyra into her quarters, lays her gently in the bed and gives her a sleeping pill.
When Lyra comes round, Mrs. Coulter distraught by the nurses actions on her daughter tells her: 'Lyra. Darling. No-one will hurt you, no-one is ever ever going going to hurt you.' 'They did to Roger and Billy, they tied 'em up and separated their daemons from them, why did they do that?' 'It was for their own good, darling!" "Oh, right, but why did you stop them doing it to me, even when you let my best friends have it done to them, they didnt want it, you kidnapped 'em!" "I'm your mother!" "No! You cant be!" "Lyra, I am and I suppose you know who your father is, dont you?" "Lord Asriel!"
Later in the series, Mrs Coulter discovers the Church's true intentions: to kill Lyra. By then, she has grown to love the girl, so she drugs her and kidnaps her and takes refuge in a cave. However, by that time, Lyra had begun to hate and mistrust her.
Near the conclusion of The Amber Spyglass, Mrs Coulter redeems herself when she and Lord Asriel give their lives to kill the Regent Metatron and save Lyra so that she may safely fulfill the prophecy and free the multiverse from the oppression of The Authority.
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[edit] Audiobook Adaptations
Emma Fielding played Mrs Coulter in the BBC version of His Dark Materials. Alison Dowling plays her in the Chivers Children's Audio Books version. Author Philip Pullman narrates the latter with a full cast.
[edit] Film adaptation
On July 14, 2006, it was announced that actress Nicole Kidman would play Mrs Coulter in The Golden Compass, the film adaptation of Northern Lights, with Daniel Craig joining her as Lord Asriel. Pullman had previously indicated that he would like to see Kidman play the role, although he had no role in the casting procedure.
[edit] Trivia
It is possible that Mrs Coulter's name was inspired by the devout Christian right-wing political activist Anne Coulter.
Nicole Kidman also starred alongside Daniel Craig in The Invasion.
Mrs Coulter came third in the BigBadRead poll after Lord Voldemort and Sauron.[1]
