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'His Dark Materials' Season 2: Simone Kirby who plays Mary Malone reveals juicy insider info on Twitter chat

After fans raved about her 'perfect performance' in episode 2 of season 2, Kirby took over the official 'His Dark Materials' Twitter handle and answered fan questions

Simone Kirby is the actor behind the breakout character of Dr Mary Malone in 'His Dark Materials' Season 2. In her first-ever appearance in episode 2 of season 2, she seems to have won over fans of the shows and the books completely. While the episode will only air in the US next week, the trailer of the show had already introduced her character as the physicist at Oxford University in Will's world. 

We know that Lyra, seeking answers to the nature of Dust, will end up in 'The Cave', which refers to the lab which houses Dr Malone's quantum supercomputer. 'The Cave' also happens to be the title of the second episode, showing just how important the meeting between her and Lyra is. As an isolated genius, Dr Malone, the Irish scientist is researching Dark Matter, a substance that resembles the properties of Dust.

The alethiometer leads Lyra straight to Mary Malone because of her research because Dr Malone has some of the answers Lyra is looking for, while Dr Malone will be fascinated by Lyra's alethiometer. Fans of the book will also know that Dr Malone plays an extremely important role going forward, especially in book 3, the 'Amber Spyglass'. 

After fans raved about her 'perfect performance' in episode 2, Kirby took over the official 'His Dark Materials' Twitter handle and answered fan questions. Quite a few questions centered around daemons obviously. When asked if she would run from Mrs Coulter or Lord Boreal, she replied that she preferred "monkeys to snakes", referencing the daemons of the two main antagonists. She also revealed that the shirt she wore for episode 2 was referred to as the "daemon shirt". She tweeted: "Mary's clothes are VERY comfy. I love Caroline, our costume designer. She amazing. The shirt from ep. 2 has animals on it so we called it the daemon shirt. Including a hare just like Hester" -- Hester being Lee Scorseby's daemon. She also posted a gif of Pan yawning cutely, when fans asked her which daemon was her favorite. 

As a long-time fan of the books, she also reassured fans that they had nothing to worry about as far as the show staying true to its source material. "I think the producers would like to remain as faithful as possible to the books. That said, I haven't seen any scripts yet for S3," she told fans, which means Season 2's scripts at least are going to go by the book. She also told how she reacted when she heard that she had got the coveted part that plays such a pivotal role in the trilogy. "I gasped and said 'NO!' My husband thought someone had died and came to console me," she replied, to describe her first reaction. She also explained how she approached playing the character when fans complimented her performance -- "I tried to bring out her humor. Not many other characters get to enjoy the journey like she does," she tweeted.      

She also has some pretty unique answers to some common questions that circulate among the 'His Dark Materials' fandom like if Lyra's world was worth visiting and if one should use the alethiometer if they could read it. "As much as I love the daemons and the Gyptians, (and witches and Bears and...), I think the Magesterium would keep me well away from Lyra's world," she tweeted, underlining the threat from such a powerful Church-like institution with complete and absolute authority. She also seemed undecided about whether she would use the alethiometer, knowing the dangers of knowing too much about the future. "if I got too used to it I'd never take a step without asking first. Better to not know... perhaps," she remarked.

Just how we'd expect a grounded character like Dr Malone to answer!

'His Dark Materials' airs on Mondays at 9 pm ET on HBO.