The Very Best of Alan Rickman

what are you looking forward to doing uh more different better give me the code one two three i don't know it i'm telling you get on the jet to tokyo that's the chairman i'm telling you you're just gonna have to kill me okay but to make your film debut in something like this was this uh just a terrorizing experience for you or what was it like well i like i like the idea of jumping off a cliff i like a bit of danger to be involved in the work you know some size to the challenge so that was definitely there because it was such a big movie uh to be involved in and the challenge was inside that big kind of broad um adventure movie to to make a person do you like playing villains uh did you enjoy those roles sure it's fun you know you get let off the leash and you run around like a mad dog and with the benefit of hindsight i i looked at the faces of some slightly incredulous producers when i said that i would do it myself and it was being dropped from about 40 feet as i recall and of course this because this was in the days of there wasn't any cgi so uh it was let's drop the actor and i hope that he doesn't spin around in the middle of the pole and land on his head and kill himself they were very careful to make it my very last shot on the town i hope that's not a hostage [Applause] and because they're very successful movies they get a lot of publicity that's that's the beginning and ending of it but it isn't the beginning and ending of what i want to do you don't intend to keep playing these hyperbolic hollywood villains probably not but you know i suppose never say never um it's just that i'm not sure that there's anywhere else to go after the sheriff of nottingham do you mind locksmith we've just been married this will be a healthy reminder to me that subtlety isn't everything we're so much fun to watch why are you an actor i'm i'm not sure that i'm very good at anything else um and that with most actors i think it becomes an inevitability you you really do discover that it was what you were supposed to [Music] the do [Music] what do you get from it i mean because you do it so well i don't see you acting well that's a great compliment i mean you are you just do it so incredibly well and now to meet you and see you as you as opposed to a character if i was to see you on the street i would never know i mean you were that you were the sheriff of not again well the thing is that acting the more i do it the more mysterious the whole thing becomes because the more you do it the more you realize that it's about listening and not doing and it's about handing yourself over and being as open as possible to other influences rather than imposing yourself on something and so um you try to get more and more open and um and then more and more things start to just happen nor is the earth the less or loser thought for whatsoever from one place doth fall is with the tide unto another broad for there is nothing lost that may be found if sought shall we continue tomorrow no for i messed away away where but i cannot tell you it is a secret you will not stay away long you know you can be a little boy still at the movies when you're watching a movie being made what are you i'm pissed off as what i am do not touch my person you yes my idiot give me your boot continue as i was saying prior to your firefighting episode [Music] don't tell me the name doesn't ring a bell you people if there isn't a movie about it it's not worth knowing isn't it you know what made it sound brilliant is everything that alan rickman said like as you brought up that speech i remember writing that speech and on the paper that [ __ ] just lay there kind of hokey and corny but you give it to the man with an instrument like allen right but the voice that he had and the gravitas and the seriousness with which he treated his performances suddenly it's melodic i'll never forget sitting outside [ __ ] freezing weather in pittsburgh and [ __ ] we got linda fiorentino on a [ __ ] lake and we got alan walking on a fake board like he's walking on water and [ __ ] everybody's freezing like [ __ ] why'd you ride the seat right inside and [ __ ] like that can't they be at an indoor pool and the moment he starts [ __ ] acting everybody on the cruise stop pitching and [ __ ] because we watched a master at work and i look i've worked with a lot of wonderful actors and some of them are still living so hopefully they won't take offense to this when i say alan rickman was hands down the finest [ __ ] actor that i ever worked with and the pinnacle of my performance everything i am has been a lie no no no no knowing what you now know doesn't mean you're not who you were you are bethany sloane no one can take that away from you not even god all this means is a redefinition of that identity the incorporation of this new data into who you are be who you've always been just be this as well from time to time i guess this means no more cheating on my taxes to say the least you have co-starred in film together you have written a film that he has been in he has directed a film that you've been in is there any form of working relationship you haven't covered yet um well at least no um but pretty much everything else a classic fool say hi everyone my kids my kids this is all this is what your wretched father has made me put on my head oh by grab those emma when we meet sir alexander dane he does not want to say by grab thar's hammer anymore why grab car's hammer dr lazarus don't do that i'm not kidding i'm sorry sir i was only just don't the whole movie is a setup for can we create a moment where where this actor in character as dr lazarus actually says that line and means it for the first time and that's the moment in galaxy quest quillock he just gets really centered and he gives quelik this [Music] you shall be avenged and i got to you know watch him do it it was just magical i remember when i saw galaxy quest in the theater the entire audience just went quiet when it happened it's like and we were just laughing like 20 seconds ago the fact that alan rickman had chosen to come over and do this with with us gave us such legitimacy you know he just he was funny and sardonic and caustic and his bedside manner would seem sort of misanthropic actually he was the opposite of that he was such a kind-hearted affable beautiful guy but he had this very sort of dry you know english thing where he sort of seems like he's over everything which made him very funny but actually he's one of the kind he was one of the kindest people you know out there uh he was the first movie star that wanted to be my friend we were saying goodbye i said thanks so much for being in this movie yeah it's been great to work with you and he said it's been fun intermittently i can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses i can tell you how to bottle fame brew glory and even put a stopper in death then again maybe some of you have come to hogwarts in possession of abilities so formidable that you feel confident enough to not pay attention mr potter our new celebrity it was a unique experience and i wouldn't have missed anything for it and i'm proud of the fact that we all took it dead seriously and you know there was no messing about well there was a little bit there was one time where in this room actually michael gambon and alan rickman and i think alfonso was kind of coordinating it um it was very good because it was a bunch of sleeping bags and and and then has us to have his sleeping bag next to this particular girl that he fancy action for now let them sleep we've just done a take right we've just finished the take and it's taken ages together in our dreams we enter completely our own world you know it's completely our own world and we like to we like to swim in the deepest waters and fly they had put a fart machine into my sleeping bag this whole echo and michael gambon had actually been pressing it during the take i found out then i went and did equals and then um we went out for dinner afterwards and suddenly i found that allen's actually hilarious and really funny and self-deprecating and kind of wonderful company and um and and who also was so supportive of me whenever i was going on stage at one point he cut short his holiday and i think in canada to come back early and see the show so he could talk to me like he does he's he's amazing like he does things like that and um but how much did he know did she tip you off about where snape would ultimately 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 i never knew any of that um but it was a small piece of information that let me know that um there was more to him than met the eye there is this deep dark secret that snape is caring and i always wanted that to be obvious from the very first time snape looks at harry and you've seen the first film when snape is looking at harry there's something much much deeper going on harry what is it where shall i be nothing nothing i'm fine i don't think anybody but john rolling is sure about him you know he seems to be one thing and then constantly pulls the rug out from under your feet [Music] well here's the thing is that he had a separate conversation during the first movie with joe rowling so alan knew something that none of us knew he may have known the secret that exists in book seven i don't know he never told us he said he knew something and his performance was based on that conversation he's a complicated person and there's clearly a past that's getting worked out through the films and you have to keep wondering how come it is that he's saving their lives all the time he'd uh use my own spells against me possibly yes i'm the half blood prince the space that alan puts between words sometimes you can feel an entire auditorium hanging on that pause and they absolutely adore it don't tell me now that you've grown to care for the boy [Music] hey [Music] after all this time [Music] [Applause] [Music] always i saw him um about six weeks before he passed away he came to see a play that i was doing in new york and we saw him backstage and he was a little frail and he said he had had a stroke you know and we were like are you kidding what you know was but he was with his wife and he was you know came to the theater he flew to new york and see plays and uh we went to dinner afterwards and he was you know just funny and sweet and was so lovely and he died like six weeks later he didn't want us to know that he was dying he'd said he'd had a stroke and so that the evening was not in any way morbid or sad it was just another little allen's here he's getting better and and i don't think he'd mind me saying this but i hope not forgive me but he had to drop out of a project because of his illness it was because of the stroke he'd said and he said and goes like and i go like oh who got the role he goes like bill nye it'd be great to stay i did a play i um years later that he was just leaving so um and i such a huge regret we had a a couple performances where i could have entered the play early and had overlap and done it with him and i and i and i felt like i wasn't ready and i got a card in my dressing room that just said uh and really like in in really like um flowing cursive uh and there's a sunset it just said [ __ ] you really funny and then the stuff inside was really sweet and dude but it was the funniest he just had a great sense of humor let's make the most of these last few moments together because you must remember that when we made this movie alan was very well known for playing villains and um elena uh replies to hugh hughes question is you know he says colin brandon which is the name of bannon's character in this film he must be a very nice man he must be a very good man and eleanor says yes he's the kindest and best of men and that's the best description i can give of my friend alan rickman thank you for coming to honor his memory he was a wonderful man and a wonderful friend and an extraordinary human being if you'll forgive me it was an awful week and alan died and i wonder if you'd all stand up and clap thank you so much for doing that it's a funny time to be nominated for things and accepting prizes when people as great as him have left us but i don't want to leave you on a sad note so i'm going to tell a funny story about al if i can when i worked with him when i was only 19 years old i was absolutely terrified on day one and i remember him looking at me and i remember feeling so small smaller than i'd ever felt before in my life and after a few weeks of getting to know him and realizing just how wonderful and warm he really was i was standing there in my costume on sense and sensibility and my knickers had gone up my bum and um you know when you're trying to flick your knickers out of your ass and you're wearing a corset it's actually quite tricky and so i was sort of yanking at my pants and emma thompson was standing right there and i said [ __ ] my [ __ ] knickers have gone up my ass and al just said ah feminine mystique strikes again thank you very much whenever young actors now say to me what advice do you give me uh you know i'm thinking about training i want to be an actor or whatever i say forget about acting um and i really mean it at that point in time because whatever you do as an actor is is cumulative it's about so i say go to art galleries listen to music know what's happening on the news in the world and form opinions develop your taste and judgment so that when a quality piece of writing is put in front of you your imagination which you've nurtured has something to bounce off and then you have to start learning about courage i think courage yeah because you have to be courageous with yourself you have been very annoying but you've also been a friend i'm gonna miss you [Music] don't think it'd be so hard to say goodbye it's been a real pleasure you are the only person i have ever met whoever i didn't have to explain or even justify myself to final question uh if there is a young actor or actress out there and uh looking at you and looking perhaps for some inspiration what is the one thing that you would tell that person good luck

Channel: Best of Humans

Views: 245,235

Rating: 4.9769382 out of 5

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Id: Wgnia-fIeW0

Length: 21min 30sec (1290 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 28 2020