R.I.P Alan Rickman (1946 - 2016)
It’s astonishing to think how very vivid Alan Rickman is to so many people, thanks to the breadth of roles he has played and how well he has played them. He had that voice, that voice, it certainly weakened my knees. And I know I’m not the only one.
To a whole generation, he is Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films, always full of malice and mystery. The character who probably has the most interesting journey of all the characters, at least for the audience. I admit I’ve never seen any of the films as I adore the books too much. But Snape remains fascinating, Rickman was also the only cast member told by JK Rowling plot details of future books so that he could factor this into his performance.
He was Hans Gruber in Die Hard, utterly menacing but with a hint of playfulness and absolute control, a combination that remains mesmerising. I still get a shiver thinking about that performance. He’s so chilling but you can’t help smiling too because he mines moments of comedy too which doesn’t lessen his menace at all, a tricky thing to pull off but he does it so very well. The scene where Gruber pretends to be an American hostage was included because Rickman could do such a flawless American accent. Thanks to this performance, the idea of a Brit playing a villain in Hollywood really did get cemented (yes, even though he’s playing a German).
As did his utterly scenery-chewing role as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Now, I really do not like this film, for so many reasons, but Rickman’s Sheriff, deranged and utterly driven towards dictatorship, is so completely entertaining. I’m pretty sure everyone has quoted one of his so very memorable lines at once or twice - ‘I’ll cut his heart out with a spoon!...because it’s dull, you idiot, it’ll hurt more!’ The Sheriff madly storms about, cancelling Christmas and consulting an equally mad witch. He’s a complete pantomime villain and he’s the part everyone remembers with such delight because Rickman is so charismatic and snarling and absolutely going for it. I’d say it’s worth sitting through everything else in the film just for his performance. He also won a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA for this role, when he accepted it he said that he’d take it as a reminder that acting isn’t always about subtlety. Lol.
Truly, Madly, Deeply is such an affecting film about grief. If you haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil it for you but Rickman and Juliet Stevenson are amazing in it. It’s tagged as ‘the British Ghost’ but that’s simplistic. There’s much more to it than that. Seek it out, be quietly amazed and very affected. Such a good film.
As Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility, Rickman gives a very different performance, probably quite startling for those who only know him for his mad Sheriff or menacing Gruber. He is reserved and kind, a proper gentleman who adores Mariette and probably to most young eyes seems a boring choice compared to dashing sexy Wickham. I read an article recently about how it’s only when you’re older than you realise the wonderfulness of a Brandon compared to a Wickham. I’d say so. He definitely set my heart fluttering and he always does when I rewatch that film. He makes real sense of the role, gives it stature and there’s deep romance in his treatment of Mariette, how he regards her and behaves. Brandon is definitely one of my favourite Austen men and that’s because of Rickman.
Love Actually is one of my mother’s favourite films - she watches it every Christmas - and we both love Rickman’s scenes as a husband tempted into infidelity. The scene where he goes to buy a necklace for a girl at his office and encounters Rowan Atkinson who stalls him indefinitely with elaborate gift wrapping makes us laugh and laugh. It’s the look on Rickman’s face that’s so wonderful. His thread in this multiple-story film is one of the bitterest and all the better for it, spiking the mostly sweet stories that surround it. He and Emma Thompson are perfect in it.
My favourite Rickman role is the angel Metatron, the voice of God, in Dogma. Such a departure from most of the roles he’s done. The scene when he first appears is so hilarious. I remember my Mum happening to be in the room when I was watching it once and her shocked laughter at it. Metatron is full of sarcasm and brilliant sharp lines, some of my favourite in the film. Also the scene where he comforts an overwhelmed Bethany, walking on water and admitting that if he’d had the choice he would have taken away the burden of what was to come from the child Jesus, is so affecting. It’s a film that always reaffirms my faith and a character that never fails to make me smile. Also ever since someone pointed out that when Metatron places his hand on Bethany at the end of the film it’s a very sexy moment, I’ve been unable to watch that moment without an inner wobble. Even if you’re not a fan of Kevin Smith’s films, I advise you watch this one. It’s the one that made me reevaluate his work.
The outpouring of emotion since Rickman’s death demonstrates how much his characters have been taken into people’s lives, become part of their childhoods in some cases. And he seemed a warm lovely gentleman, married to his first girlfriend, did great charity work and was loved by his costars, the tributes that have emerged have been so moving and lovely. Daniel Radcliffe has spoke of how Rickman was the first actor to treat him as a peer rather than a child and there’s been gifs of a story told in Harry Potter interviews about Rupert Grint drawing an exaggerated picture of Rickman only to find Rickman standing behind him. Rickman asked him to sign it and kept the picture.
Alan Rickman was one of my mother’s favourite actors and one of mine too. He was often the most memorable part of the films he was in. He was loved because he was so good on screen and stage and because he was clearly so kind off them too. There was real warmth to him, an impishness, a grandeur too. You knew you were watching someone of immense talent and he chose interesting roles, ones he clearly wanted to do rather than ones that were expected of him or that his agent told him to do. He kept the cancer he was suffering from quiet; he always seemed quite private. So his death really does come as a really sharp shock. I think I’m still at the stage where I can’t believe he’s gone.
RIP Alan Rickman. All hail the Metatron.