Rickman was a virtuoso star who brought nuanced beauty to every role. There was a unique flair to even the most bombastic and joyously OTT characters like the snarling Sheriff in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Die Hard’s villanous Hans Gruber. He could also find piercing emotion, and not just in dramas like Truly, Madly, Deeply. His ability to mine deep, hidden veins, even in glossy blockbusters, was unparalleled and none more so than in one of the biggest franchises of all time across eight Harry Potter films
The actor is back on TV screens today in Galaxy Quest, where he plays pompous thespian Alexander Dane. Rather like te “secret word” in the Harry Potter films, his character’s whole arc turns on the delivery of a single phrase.
Dane had come to loathe his character, Dr Lazarus’ catchphrase, “Never Give up, never surrender” but creates a truly tear-jerking moment when he says it to comfort a dying alien thermian.
Similarly, as Severus Snape in the Potterverse, everything changes with just one word – and not just on screen but also in real life.
Rickman didn’t have to audition for the role but was offered it directly by director Chris Columbus when they were casting the first film, 2001’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
By the end of the series, Snape had been revealed to be the most complex and layered character of all, but early on, he began to lose interest, fearing the wizard was just another two-diminsional villain.
A private conversation with author JK Rowling convinced him to keep faith and stick with the character.
WATCH ALAN RICKMAN DELIVER HIS ICONIC HARRY POTTER LINE BELOW
Columbus said: “He had a separate conversation during the first movie with Jo Rowling. So, Alan knew something that none of us knew. He may have known the secret that exists in book seven… He never told us. He said he knew something and his performance was based on that conversation.”
Rickman himself admitted during the franchise: “I don’t think anybody but Joanne Rowling is sure about him (Snape). He seems to be one thing and then constantly pulls the rug out from under your feet.”
And in a public letter published to mark his final day filming the franchise, Rickman revealed how Rowling had persuaded him to stay.
On April 26, 2011, Rickman wrote: “Three children have become adults since a phone call with Jo Rowling, containing one small clue, persuaded me that there was more to Snape than an unchanging costume, and that even though only three of the books were out at that time, she held the entire massive but delicate narrative in the surest of hands. It is an ancient need to be told stories. But the story needs a great storyteller. Thanks for all of it, Jo.”
A year later, he told The New York Times: “The difficulty was that when we started Jo Rowling had only written three of them and I was playing the character where you had no idea where it was going…
“Jo knew everything and she had put the ending into a safe right back then. There’s a lot of speculation about this. Before I said I would do it I said I had to talk to her…. We spoke and she gave me one small piece of information, it was very small. It let me know that there was more to him than met the eye.”
Asked to to reveal what that was, he said: “I promised her I never would.”
However, Rowling herself eventually shared it on social media.
After intense speculation for years, the author sensationally replied to a fan tweet asking if she would ever share her secret conversation with Rickman.
Rowling simply said: “I told Alan what lies behind the word ‘always.'”
Fans, of course, recognise this is from the pivotal conversation between Snape and Dumbledore. By then we already know that he has been acting as a double agent, betraying former master Voldemort to protect Harry Potter.
In the moving scene in book seven, Snape’s patronus is revealed to be the same as Lily Potter’s:
“But this is touching, Severus,” said Dumbledore seriously. “Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?” “For him?” shouted Snape. “Expecto Patronum!” From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe. She landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office, and soared out of the window. Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears. “After all this time?” “Always,” said Snape.
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