Dafne Keen makes young characters forceful without making them easy to like. We rate her most highly in Logan, where she can be as difficult as the adults and makes their awkward affection worth waiting for.
Fi1m perspective
In Logan (2017), Dafne Keen lets Laura be difficult company. Opposite Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart, she makes the child matter without asking either the other characters or us to find her adorable. Her glare helps, but the performance would be less interesting if fierceness were all it offered. She has the confidence to leave an exchange awkward rather than soften it for our benefit.
Her breakthrough as Laura was followed by Lyra Belacqua, the lead in His Dark Materials (2019–2022). She went on to play Jecki Lon in The Acolyte (2024). The recurring invitation is to play a young woman who is intelligent, self-possessed and unwilling to follow rules. It is easy to see why fantasy keeps finding work for her. The danger is that defiance becomes the whole part, when Logan shows how much she gains from characters who do not conveniently accommodate her.
James Mangold gets so much from her because he does not require her to make the makeshift family in Logan easy to love. His screenplay with Michael Green and Scott Frank gives the three leads temperaments that do not neatly fit together, and Keen can resist the older performers without being reduced to an obstacle for them. We were moved by their attempts to tolerate one another, precisely because none of them makes the affection look automatic. The violence sometimes labours a point their acting has already made, and the film keeps fighting after these three have persuaded us to care.
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) brings her back as Laura, but gives her less to work with. The film is funny in patches and tiring in stretches, with jokes about the studio that leave Jackman poorly served. Keen still gets the one supporting part with substance, which matters in a film crowded with people chiefly invited to be recognised. It is enough to make her worth watching, though not enough to make the film an easy recommendation. For her next substantial role, we would welcome a writer willing to let her be uncertain, and give her time to show it.
Biography
Dafne Keen is a Spanish and British actress. She made her acting debut in the television series The Refugees (2015), appearing alongside her father, the actor Will Keen.
Keen is known for playing Laura / X-23 in the films Logan (2017) and Deadpool & Wolverine (2024). She starred as Lyra Silvertongue in the series His Dark Materials (2019–2022) and as Jecki Lon in The Acolyte (2024).
