Alan Rickman 1 Hour Interview (Part 2/4) @ New York Times Arts & Leisure Weekend January 2012

my brother and I started liking each other again after seeing that we did not have similar similar film tastes I was told you filmed that seeing yourself in terms of the action sequence is that right you know I did what you gotta remember that is so long ago that film that it was before computers were invented I think so now you'd be like to just sort of flailing about and they'd shove it in and you'd be fine then you have to really do the fall and they said to it to me well you know we could do it on the back of your head and we could put a double in not your head the back up somebody dressed up like a zit or and then they started to look very hopeful we could do it on your face and then but the thing is it was so dangerous I just immediately as an actor thought that will be a good shirt but it was 40 feet and so I did have I had one day's training falling from 15 feet and then 20 feet and toshi you had no fear of heights no I don't and and I enjoy rollercoasters and things like that so it was fine from that point of view but I you know hindsight it was the last scene I shot in the film well if it kills it we've got there was a there was a danger they said to me or the guy who was in charge of it said ok as you release the thing because I'm Manning to get the gun into the camera I remember this as well as pulling the belt that was keeping me attached to this know a thing and he said as you fool you must remember to get your arms and legs if you don't you're the old start to turn and you'll land on your head at the time did you have any pre sense any sense of what that role might mean for you in terms of stamping your kind of performance on American film viewers consciousness I know because I was I thought well I just finished two years on and off playing foul more in liaison Dodgers and I didn't really know how it worked at all you know I went to LA for some meetings and two weeks later I was offered that film and and I'm really talking to agents and saying but this is an action movie I don't know how to do well in fact I guess some things are meant to be and you just have to go with it right and because of maybe because of my training I was able to influence the story quite a lot because I said to them at the time I was being fitted for all these terrorist gear costumes and and I said but why would I be wearing that stuff when I've got all these Hulk's around me six foot wide as well as such and I said and if I was in an ordinary suit then maybe there could be a scene where I get to meet Bruce Willis and pretend to be the hospital and I went into the film - Wow all right I'm gonna call my brother right after this that would be I mean you played a broad spectrum of people of characters in your career but for a certain segment of fans your thought of as an actor who is particularly expert at playing villains does that bother you well I'm you'd have to name them and you'd run out after about three I think and because if you say diehard and Robin Hood then you start going because everything else is somewhat more complicated a contrast to film like die hard was a role you played a few years later Colonel Brandon and Sense and Sensibility yeah real villain let's watch a clip from that now nor is the earth the less or looser thought for whatsoever from one place dot fall is with the tide unto another broad for there is nothing lost that may be found if sort shall we continue tomorrow no I must away away what doctor I cannot tell you it is a secret you will not stay away long projects like Sense and Sensibility adaptations of famous British works do you did you approach say this one enthusiastically is there sort of a lira 'no sub how a sense and sensibility will translate onto the screen for you well a lot of one's life as an actor is just hold your nose and jump but with that I mean I love Jane Austen we're very rude about her in seminar but she's it's genius writing and I think I think it's absolutely one of those moments in life where you discover what literature is and I remember the first time I read persuasion wanting to you know you want to go out on the street and stop the passerby and say look at that paragraph just look what she did that but you're a director as well as an actor what does it take to do great literature on screen when you need a great script for start and of course that was the blessing with some sensibilities that emma had written such a brilliant version and then they had what turned out to be the absolute sense and sensibility to her and lee a lot of people thought wow that's a strange choice but of course he absolutely understood the rules and regulations of family life coming from home carmen and all that sort of family ritual in a way and and you know just watching not seeing he knew exactly where to put the camera for any little emotional gear change so you're taken through the story properly by a directors eye and heart and driven by Emma script did you have any suggestions along the way that you made your human mm have worked now several times together but I suppose that was relatively early in your professional relationship but just in terms of the Jane Austen or Colonel Brandon really now I mean you know he was there were there were times I think it's it's documented Emma wrote a book about the filming and there are some quotes in there the only problem we had was if it was a problem was Aang's occasionally loose grasp of English and and we'd get notes that left you kind of staring it and then he said to Emma wants Emma try not to look so old it's a little shattering but she knew to translate that as don't be so knowing and then mine was Alan be more subtle do more I which we worked out that he meant do more of the subtle stuff and Kate's quite early on and she's only 19 in that Kate never mind you'll get better English is better though what do you look for in a project that you're considering as you said sometimes it's about just holding your nose and jumping but what attracts you it's an instinctive thing really you just read it and you think or I want to say that well I know who that person is is it about the shape of the character being offered you or is it more about the dialogue in the writing it's all a bit unnameable really I mean you you know good writing is immediately evident and then there's good storytelling on top of that and then there's a character that lives in three dimensions and has got you know the overworked word a journey to it just so in just our reading part of the thrill of my job is just being able to read plays or read scripts and then you hear about who's being cast in a role and we spend plenty of time at the times doing imaginary casting it shows that are coming in I think we killed a week on Follies when that was being developed but when I heard I read seminar first and then when I heard you were playing the character Leonard became very excited but it's interesting you always you you see something on a page well let's say for you when you get a script and you were essentially reading the dialogue maybe you have a sense of what the background of this character is supposed to be is there something in your instincts where you know oh this character is here right now and I'll be able to bring him to here or I'll be able to fill it in in a way that really excites you or maybe you don't think that way I think that comes later the first thing that happens is that images with something that you think well I meant to do that then images start jumping off the page at you so it's a kind of chemical kinetic thing happened it's it's slightly out-of-body thing you're not entirely in control of it and that's good with another more recent project of yours which were going to watch a clip from shortly snow cake maybe to set it up briefly what you just said was there something about the character of Alex that rose up in that way well it was a little challenging because Angela pal who wrote the script said she wrote it for me so that's always a little nerve-racking when you read it you ever heard that before from a writer no but I loved the script and we had a very happy time doing it and and it's one of those things where you just kind of hang on to its coattails in a way I read it and I said what I'd like to do this and and I think you should think about Sigourney Weaver and and she and I had done Galaxy Quest together a film we all loved doing and and I rang her and she read it and said yes immediately so you know it was meant to happen I think we're going to watch a scene you play a man recently released from prison who comes through a few incidents to live briefly with a woman with autism an adult woman played by Sigourney let's watch that clip the a a and G kind of two A's in bang in comic-book word Scrabble you can you can have three days if you want with a double letter score that makes 22 points this game is ridiculous isn't it isn't because you get to say words like Krang and Boeing and cowabunga and buttocks will call me Brooke did that color well I don't know I just like saying bad times my dog's okay what's your word I can make it up right yes that's the best bit okay why a M Oh L that's sports that's 24 point yeah mu yeah move I like that okay now you have to give an example of it in a sentence like I said if you make up a word you have to give an example right um spider-man spider-man before was spider-man well it's a bit obvious oh all right spider spadamon is about to save the universe from an evil thing and so he hits him with a jet of web yah Moo and it stops him it in its tracks got two more points than you you had played with this burning before as he mentioned in in Galaxy Quest what was that what's that relationship like two actors during Sigourney what how do you play off each other well you don't have to think about it you just did him to it because she did a lot of work I mean that a lot of people who know what it is to live with somebody who's a functioning autistic person or high-functioning say that's the most accurate portrayal of somebody with that condition they've ever seen and she spent a lot of time with various institutions and individuals so she came really prepared it's very challenging in that film because of course one of the rules of that condition is that you don't make eye contact so I'm playing very intimate scenes with somebody who never looks at me it's a really powerful I haven't I I knew that about serving autistic people ones what I've met in a friend of mine but having seen that experience captured on film it was a totally different you know to play without looking at fellow actors playing comedies successfully depends a great deal and great writing but what else does it take do you think or what did it take for you let's say in this phone in Galaxy Quest or well both would be interesting but no cake is a great blend of pretty terrific drama and refreshing like well I mean you know you're aware that it's comedy but of course you mustn't be aware of it while you're doing it and it's got all the matters there is coming up with a word just in Scrabble and trying to deal with this person yeah you can't know that it's comedy to what extent were you influenced in taking this role because it was a counterpoint to a certain long-haired black haired character you were playing for ten years well I you know he was somebody I would go back to you for seven weeks every year so I was doing other things all the time I mean I was do I did what six months in private lives in London and in New York I directed a couple of theater productions I was making other movies and Galaxy Quest I think I was around the same time as the first film and Love Actually another other movies so it wasn't feeling that oh I'd better contrast it with that curse during that period you were prettier more consciously choosing roles that felt like a counterpoint either just for fun or as a relief for I don't never really thought like that I've never really structured a career like that I think you know in in a movie industry that is absolutely worship to youth you're just grateful to be employed a lot of the times well you okay so let's get into it you had 10 years in the role of in the role of Snape who gave me chills far worse than you-know-who how did that film role come about for you I was asked to do it I went and had dinner with Chris Columbus and David Heyman and the three of us two corporately said okay then let's did you have any doubts or second thoughts about taking on the role well then the difficult if it was a difficulty was that of course she'd when we started it Geralyn had only written three of them and and I was playing the character where you had no idea where it was going so that was tricky it was clearly he had an agenda you just have no idea what it was she did she know when you became involved where he would go or was shown you everything and I think it's true to say that she had put the ending into a safe right back then did she never it would finish did she tip you off about where Snape would ultimately Welch like that and I mean there's a lot of speculation about this before I said I would do it I said I have to talk to her and I rang her and she was with her sister at the time she said I can't talk now so that's how much she kept it all to herself she said we'll talk tomorrow and then we spoke the next day and she gave me one small piece of information that was just a very small and it certainly wasn't and this will happen and then that will happen and this is how it finishes and never knew any of that but it was a small piece of information that let me know that there was more to him than met the eye can you share what that was no I promised her I never would know that before filming of the first film was underway did you were Jo or the director Chris Columbus have ideas for how to play Snape that were different from where the performance ultimately ended up filming is a bizarre medium you know you was never any rare so it's always about the product or often about the product and not very often is there time for rehearsal so a lot of decisions and and that can be a good thing it means that there's not too much thinking you have to just do it and I think with Harry Potter a lot of it was just about people just commit and don't think about it too much I was very involved in the costume and the look what did you want for it I was very specific about it I said the sleeves should be really tight and there should be a lot of buttons because that helps me the idea that he has to do actually but then and you know it's very different if you've got a sleeve that finishes there that's very different to a sleeve that finishes there so it was very important to me that that's where it finished and then buttons were tight let's watch one more scene now a scene from the final Harry Potter film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 you're spoiling the plot

Channel: chocobuttons1

Views: 49,146

Keywords: Alan Rickman (Actor), Interview, Die Hard, Sense & Sensibility

Id: F4JJKR0fVns

Length: 23min 8sec (1388 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 09 2012