Back to News

Credit: Handbag.com

An interview with Alan Rickman
by Carol Muskoron
He's in his fifties, very sexy and starring alongside Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Liam Neeson in the new release, Love Actually, which is being billed as one of the biggest British films of all time...

Does it bother you that women often look at you for your possible worth in bed rather than looking at your acting?
It amuses me! I set out to be as honest and open and direct an actor as I can. And I've noticed that when actors try to work openly, some kind of attraction is created because people see a route to you as a person, or they think they do. Maybe that creates an attraction; it's not to do with any conventional looks; it's the emotions an actor taps into.

After the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves and the bad guy in Die Hard, do you think you've cornered the 'baddie market'?
No. I've played such a mixture of characters. They're all different from me - I think as much about Truly, Madly, Deeply and Sense And Sensibility as I do about the baddie parts.

But do you prefer hamming it up to the more normal roles?
I like doing it all, really. If you're asked to be very minimal and real, that's just as interesting as hamming it up. A film like Love Actually is fairly restrained but it's not less of a challenge. It can be much easier in a way to come on all guns blazing. A lot of what Love Actually is about what isn't being said - between me and Emma, anyway.

Was it like bumping into an ex, seeing Emma Thompson on the set of Love Actually?
Well it felt like going back to old ground in a way. We've made four films together now - Sense And Sensibility, I directed her in The Winter Guest and we did Judas's Kiss (where we were romantically involved). But Emma and I have developed too much of a sense of humour to take it all too seriously - laughing too much on set is often a problem. Everybody had such a short time in the movie to say who their characters are and if you're going to say, 'Here is a couple who have been married for a while and they've got two kids,' you've got to do that in swift, short strokes. So, on the whole, the fact that we're close friends helps. Maybe that's why Richard [Curtis, director/writer of Love Actually] wanted us to play these parts.

Do you spend much time in Hollywood?
When I'm working there.

Do you like it?
Yeah, because you can go to the movies at 10 in the morning and there's nobody there eating popcorn in your ear. And I have good friends there who aren't particularly in the business and there are great bits of countryside to go to. I'll spend a day walking around Joshua Tree or going up to San Francisco. 

Was there a point in your career when you thought: 'I've made it?'
It still hasn't happened!

Yes it has!
No, because there are always people hanging around with a machete. Anytime you think you've made it, somebody'll lop you off at the ankles. Cate Blanchett said something once that was very true. She said that the horizon was always shifting, but that it's a good thing. A good sensation of never having quite arrived.

And when you knew you were a household name, you didn't have a feeling that you could rest and say, 'I've done something good here?'
Erm... the work's the important thing, not whether you're a household name. 

Are you still a staunch Labour supporter?
Well, I certainly think, 'Who else are you going to vote for?' 

So, maybe a supporter but not staunch?
Well, not uncritical but then I never was. I think it's a very, very complicated world now and I don't think there are any easy affiliations. 

Did you like working with Richard Curtis?
Yeah, he's lovely.

Had you worked with him before?
Never. And this was his first film as a director and I had directed one movie up until now and so I envied him his incredible calmness and sense of where he was going and what he was doing. I guess it helps if you've written it. He was great.

Have you noticed a big difference in your career since you've done Snape in the Harry Potter films?
Harry Potter feels like a whole other part of my life. It's somehow not part of the me who did Private Lives in the West End and the me who directed, and who did Love Actually. Harry Potter is like a pocket of life that I go and visit again from time to time.

Have you read all the Harry Potter books? Are you a fan?
You can't stop turning the pages, can you? But I haven't read them all - I have to try to catch up as we film.

The part of Snape seemed so perfect for you... there was something about it which made it look like you were stretched and yet sort of confined at the same time. Did you feel that?
Good way of putting it, actually. Because that's what Snape's like. There are such still waters in there. And the trouble is that there's so much we don't know yet 'cause JK Rowling hasn't revealed it. I know a couple of things about all that, that you don't and I'm not telling...

How do you get the dreadful Snape hair?
Easy. It's a wig.

Is there a theatre role you still fancy doing?
Well, you run out of them unfortunately, the older you get. You keep thinking, 'Oops! Can't do that role' and 'that's gone'! The older you get, the more parts you miss out on.

Do you prefer theatre to film?
No. And after I'd done a year on stage the last thing I wanted to do was another play. It's a balancing act. 

Does theatre take it out of you more?
Yeah.

But does it give more?
Not always. Sometimes it takes more than it gives. It's a very particular discipline, especially when the reviews are a success, so that the theatre is packed, and there are people moaning that they can't get a ticket and you're just a little actor. Opening night on Broadway is pressure, but that's what I do. It's part of the job. It's great when the curtain comes down at the end... and it's great when you're doing it, too. It's just that hanging on to that concentration for two solid hours is hard. At least in a film if you screw it up you can do it again.

What's the best line you've ever uttered in a film?
Well, in a TV series years ago, it was my character's exit line from the whole thing and he turned to these two people who'd just trounced him and said, 'May you both live forever!'

Copyright © 2003 handbag.com