Alan Rickman

The cover of the book “Relax: The Relief of Tension Through Muscle Control“ by Jane Madders, BBC Books, 1973 It is illustrated by Richard Bonson

Bobbie Wygant Interviews Alan Rickman on Quigley Down Under and his new roles, 1990 and Behind the Scenes

Alan Rickman at the press conference for the premiere of “The Winter Guest “, West Yorkshire Playhouse, January 1995 “He fielded with aplomb the question of whether fame had corrupted him. “Probably to some extent - one’s aware of moments when you have stamped your little foot in a childish way.” “Talent is an accident of genes - and a responsibility,” he said. “You are given this thing and everybody has talent… mine just happens to be for acting and that creates a situation like this. It is a strange and powerful responsibility. “The same is more true when there is a text by a really wonderful writer because you can have that extraordinary sense that 750 people become one unit and receive an idea - you can feel the wheels turning as an idea is received and that is the power of the theatre.”

Charlie Dore: “We did work together in 1995 when I was recording a new song, ‘Refuse To Dance’ and Alan’s integrity, kindness and wit and were immediately apparent. The theme of the song, co-written with Danny Schogger, covers a girl trying to resist the seduction of a powerful lothario and needed a rich, hypnotic male voice to speak over the intro and choruses. I’d seen Alan in the 1986 stage production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses and he was the embodiment of that voice. But I didn’t know him. However my friend Catherine Bailey, a highly respected radio producer seemed to know everyone and sure enough it turned out she’d been at RADA with him. Thanks to her, introductions were made (via letter - pre internet) and he agreed to do it. I was delighted, but then came the embarrassing bit - the money. This was to be the first release on my own label, Black Ink, so there wasn’t much of a budget. I rang him and asked what his fee would be. He said ‘I don’t want a fee…as such, but here’s what I’d like…’ I held my breath and he went on to say that he had an old friend, singer-songwriter Tara Hugo who needed some recording time and if she could come and use my home studio for a few hours we’d call it a deal. I exhaled and just about resisted saying something embarrassing about wishing I could apply to be one of his new old friends. The session with Alan was a breeze… (as was the one with Tara, incidentally, who became a friend). I was nervous of ‘directing’ him but I should have known he’d know what was needed anyway. Even so, having delivered some wonderfully dark, sensuous and slightly menacing versions of the introduction, ‘Why don’t you dance? Everyone else is.’ he was still up for doing even more ‘just in case…’ and when it came to listing the dances , ‘Foxtrot, Tango, Quickstep, Samba’ he found more ways of saying those words than I’d imagined possible. During the session he was funny, generous, self-effacing, kindly, irreverent and the famous eyebrows were raised often and to great effect. After he left the engineer said, ‘Blimey, I wasn’t expecting that! I thought he’d be a big lovey, swanning about in a floppy hat and a cloak or something. He was just a brilliant geezer! A decent bloke.’ We agreed we had all been thoroughly Rickman’d. Celine Dion went on to record a version of ‘Refuse To Dance’ for her The Color of My Love album but when they tried to include the spoken part with various New York actors of note, no-one could make it work without sounding either outrageously camp or like a poor man’s Christopher Lee. Alan, apparently effortlessly had just hit all the right nuances and couldn’t be imitated. In the end Columbia released it without a spoken voice part. I saw him occasionally at parties in the following years and he was always kind and interested in what was afoot in the ridiculous record business…and when I commented that I must have started something as he’d gone up-market by Tango-ing with Sharleen Spiteri in a proper shiny video for Texas, he smiled the all-knowing smile and raised an eyebrow. Like I said, I didn’t know him well, but like everyone else who was lucky enough to meet him, however fleetingly, I feel the world is a poorer, greyer place without him.” (Facebook, 2016) Tara Hugo: “Yes. 1993. I became friends with Alan in 1987, though he was at Rada with my husband. Me later at RADA. You did get a good deal, lucky you had a Home Studio and didn't have to use studio time, eh? Dear Alan. I owe him so much.” (Facebook, 2016)

Risa Bramon Garcia (a casting director): “Long ago and not so far away. Alan Rickman with Lindsay Duncan.” “The past few days has shaken me up. Alan Rickman was a friend. An old soul-soul mate, a teacher, a wizard, a champion. He kicked my ass. He stretched me and everyone around him. He saw things nobody else saw. He was an inspiration and amazingly generous. To me and to everyone he knew. I adored him. His death hit me hard, and letting go sometimes feels impossible. But it’s the celebration of Alan that I arrive at iwe are meditating together on this challenge path. Goodbye to my dear friend and may we all follow his grace and audacity, and commit to his kind of compassion, imagination, and daring in our work and in our lives.” (Facebook, 2016)

Behind the scenes of “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”, 28 January 2002 “8am pick-up → Paddington. 8.57 → Gloucester. On the set (Gloucester Cathedral, that is) we block a couple of scenes and go back to the hotel after lunch (the tent feeling as if it’s going to take off in the wind). Emma Watson is unwell so there’s nothing we can shoot. 7 Down the bar to find Maggie S. reading. Ken Branagh joins later and having had Maggie on Cher we are howling at stories of directing de Niro – or first, casting him.” (“Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman diaries”)

An entry from Alan Rickman’s diary. In the published diaries, there is only the first line about arriving in Pisa. “Thursday 21 August 2014 6:40 Heathrow Express for the 8:50 → PISA Marta there to drive us to Contignano dinner and Ruth and Richard’s house-in-a-din-with-a-view-and-a-half. A pause in Montalcino on the way to buy some wine and cheese, but it is still 3 hours in the car. The man waited (Richard, Ruth + John Berger + sons Jake + Noah) for him, so at 3:15 in we sat down to home-made pasta + porcini mushrooms, vegetables + fruit. A glass of wine and a big old chat. pm Spoke to Susan, who is understandably full of regrets. She has 2 nephews and a niece that she hardly knows. I gently pushed her towards remedying that. 9pm into Pienza - Ruth and the girls tasting pizzas outside the church. Ruby wanted to light some candles. So we all trooped in and said some love to Bo… Then dinner with John at his new hotel Babette townhouse. Very LA in a Pienza street, but beautifully done. Home, tomorrow, in the dark. Fiday 22 August AM swim in the infinity pool that leans quietly into the valley. Eventually, breakfast and even more eventually a car-ride slowing up the hill to visit Montereggi, in Castiglioncello, Toscana Beautiful, old but that has been created within the walls of a town that was dying. Spectacular location views to everywhere. 180 mr - eventually - drive to Campagnatico. Where all is well, and as it should be except now it really does need de-cluttering… 7pm Josh, Jake + Noah Berger arrive. The latter two to dive-bomb in the pool, the rest of us to lunch at their joyousness. 8:40 in – to Vecchia Osteria, and to everybody’s (mostly Collado’s) horror, the Pizza man has slipped a disc… Pasta and tagliata it is… and then off J, T + N go into the night and the next Big Adventure.” (“Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman diaries”)

A Photocall meeting of the Tony Awards nominees, Times Square, New York, 22 May 2002

Behind the scenes of “Dogma”, 1999

Sharon Stone: "I don't think sexiness is about being young. Advertisers would have us think otherwise. I have been in the modelling industry all my life, and I know some beautiful models who have the sex appeal of a turnip. Alan Rickman could charm the pants right off you, he just really had 'it'. Sexiness is not about beauty, it is not about saying lines in a bar. Sexiness is, more than any other thing, about knowing who you are and feeling O.K. to be you." (‘Penthouse magazine’, 2019) The photographer Andreas Neubauer, 1994

Behind the scenes of “Rasputin”, November 1995 Marianne Dimant: “First they rehearsed - Alan Rickman dutifully drank the “poisoned Madeira” (which was actually grape juice) and ate the pastries. Three pastries, three glasses of juice. Then came “Attention, camera, action!” Yusupov ran upstairs, grabbed the revolver, ran back down and there was Grigory Efimovich, sitting there alive and singing “Don’t fly, eagle, too close to the ground”. Meanwhile, a pyrotechnician was lying on the floor on standby. Under Rasputin’s shirt was a complicated setup of wires connected to a bag of red paint. Felix fires the shot, the pyrotechnician remotely yanks the wires, the shirt tears, a bloody stain appears on the chest… but there’s no gunshot sound. So, back to square one. They change Rasputin’s shirt, attach a new blood bag. Take two. More pastries, even more pastries, and more juice, of course. “Don’t fly, eagle…” Felix runs upstairs again, comes back with the revolver, raises his hand - the pyrotechnician pulls the wires, the shirt rips… still no gunshot. “Fuck!” yells Felix, furiously throwing the gun aside. By now Rickman is turning a bit green and whispers pathetically: “I’m feeling sick.” No wonder! Take three. Back to positions. New shirt on Rasputin, Felix gripping the pistol so tightly his knuckles are white, the pyrotechnician is in position, everyone holding their breath. But no luck. This time Felix shoots successfully, but now there are problems with the pyrotechnics. Third take, fourth, fifth - they keep changing shirts, adding fresh blood, more pastries, more Madeira (damn that stuff). In the end: Alan Rickman heroically ate eighteen pastries (well, he didn’t finish all of them, but he took big bites out of many) and drank eighteen glasses of grape juice. The juice seemed to be coming out of Rickman’s ears and nostrils by that point, and someone even ran to the pharmacy for activated charcoal. They finished off Rasputin the next day where they were supposed to, in the courtyard of the Yusupov Palace, on a frosty December evening. They got thoroughly chilled. But compared to the previous day’s pastries and juice, it was nothing. They generously covered Rickman in fake blood, and he fell into the snow about five times, struck by Purishkevich’s bullet. That same evening we went to the Malaya Nevka and quickly dumped the Rasputin dummy from the bridge. We celebrated right there on the bridge, drinking ice-cold champagne.” (“gоrоd-812 ru”, December 2020) Alan Rickman: “To the wooden bridge (the actual bridge) for the throwing over of Rasputin. Ten degrees below is a jaw-dropping temperature with gloves and coat off, so I hid in the car as much as possible. I hate last nights, last shots, goodbyes. Casual as possible is all I can do – hard in the face of an outpouring of affection from the Russian crew. Makes me wish we were here longer and with more sensitive leaders. But the champagne and cake is a happy farewell as the circus moves on.” (“Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman diaries”)

The Interview about “The Winter Guest”, 1998

Alan Rickman talks about ”The Winter Guest” and his experience as a director, 1998

Alan Rickman talks about ”The Winter Guest” and his experience as a director, 1998

Alan Rickman as Uriah Shelley, Kevin Lloyd and Stuart Fox in "A Man's a Man" at the Little Theatre, Bristol, 1977 “The play takes a zany look at life in the British Army in India. The production, directed by Adrian Noble, is in turn funny, fascinating and thought-provoking. After 50 years, the question of what makes a person an individual still has no complete answer.” ‘Evening Post’, November 1977

‘The Late Show: Truly, Madly, Alan Rickman’, BBC

Behind the scenes of “Mesmer”, 1993 Footage from ‘The Late Show: Truly, Madly, Alan Rickman’, which aired on BBC on 3 October 1994 Full episode: ‘Archive UK tv’ YouTube channel

Behind the scenes of “Blow Dry”, 1999 “The award-winning coiffeurs, who own a salon in Bishopthorpe Road, York, rubbed shoulders with Alan Rickman, Natasha Richardson and Warren Clarke, for the filming of Never Better. “They were all incredibly friendly and were thrilled that we had gone down to work with them. It was a wonderful experience.” (‘Evening Press’, October 1999) “The brothers Matthew and Robin Bowler are British champions in men’s hairdressing and were asked to help in the new film, called Blow Dry, which is due to be released in May. “All the actors we met were all very relaxed and down to earth. It was all new to us.” (‘Evening Herald’, November 1999)

“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”, behind the scenes and interviews, 2007 “29 March 2007 Happy, concentrated atmosphere. Johnny wears his fame very lightly and has done his homework and is open to ideas. And has plenty of his own. It’s all a gradual process of becoming comfortable with the obstacles although one of them is a real threat – my skin starts screaming at the shaving foam after it has been applied, washed off and reapplied 6 or 7 times. By the end of the day the makeup is concealing red blotches and a lot of stinging. 30 March It has been a pleasure to do the scene with Johnny D. He has real concentration and a great sense of humour. Unbeatable combination. And there seemed to be a real buzz on set all day. Bravo, Mr Sondheim. The song never lost its complexity nor its simplicity – either musically or via its lyrics. That must be some kind of genius.” (“Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman diaries”)