Private journals belonging to actor Alan Rickman have given fans a new look at how he felt about the iconic Harry Potter franchise as well as his coworkers.
Harry Potter wouldn’t be Harry Potter without Severus Snape, and the Harry Potter movies just wouldn’t be the same without Alan Rickman in that iconic role. Journals belonging to Rickman being shared by The Guardian are shedding some light on how he felt — both good AND bad — about the series and his co-stars in them.
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On filming the first movie, Alan wrote about the set: “General atmosphere is friendly and a mite chaotic.”
“The Great Hall with Maggie Smith, Zoë Wanamaker, Ian Hart, Richard Harris – all in their ways sweet, funny souls,” he wrote about the actors playing McGonagall, Madame Hooch, Quirrell, and Dumbledore respectively. “A hat has been made for Snape. A hat? For Snape?” he notes humorously.
After seeing the first film, Alan writes that it had a “hideous score.”
Alan almost didn’t return to the series, writing that his agent had been “Reiterating no more HP. They don’t want to hear it.”
Luckily, he chose to return, and writes about acting with Daniel Radcliffe. “Corridor with Dan Radcliffe. He’s so concentrated now. Serious and focused – but with a sense of fun. I still don’t think he’s really an actor but he will undoubtedly direct/produce. And he has such quiet, dignified support from his parents. Nothing is pushed,” he said . But not everything he had to say about his co-stars was positive.
“These kids need directing,” he noted later. “They don’t know their lines and Emma [Watson]’s diction is this side of Albania at times.”
Alan heaped praise upon ‘Prisoner Of Azkaban,’ writing, “It is a very grown-up movie, so full of daring that it made me smile and smile. Every frame of it is the work of an artist and storyteller.”
And while filming for Order Of The Phoenix , Alan had this to say about getting into character: “I realise as soon as that [Snape’s] ring and costume go on – something happens. It becomes alien to be chatty, smiley, open. The character narrows me down, tightens me up. Not good qualities on a film set. I have never been less communicative with a crew. Fortunately, Dan [Radcliffe] fills that role with ease and charm. And youth.”
“I have finished reading the last Harry Potter book,” one later entry reads.
“Snape dies heroically. This was a genuine rite of passage. One small piece of information from Jo Rowling seven years ago – Snape loved Lily – gave me a cliff edge to hang on to,” he wrote, revealing he’d been given insight into his character’s mind before any of us knew the truth about Snape.
“Lunch w. Dan Radcliffe at Cafe Cluny. One minute he was 12 now he’s 19. When did that happen? And he’s sensitive, articulate & smart,” he writes, shortly after.
Alan wrote that the filming of the final movie left something to be desired.
“Finding it hard to remember any particular scenes over the years mainly because all the decisions are taken in committee rooms and not on the floor,” he said of filming Snape’s death scene, but he had a different tone on the final day of filming.
“LAST DAY ON HARRY POTTER,” he writes. “All a bit hard to believe. I think even Daniel was shocked by the finality. Cameras were everywhere, it seemed (docu ones). [I am asked] ‘So how does it feel?’ Before you’ve felt it, before the feeling has a name. ‘It’s private,’ I managed, ‘and I’m not sharing it with that’ pointing at his lens.
Something is in those cans and it is finished. Thanks, Jo.”
h/t: The Guardian
