Harry Potter: Casting the spell (excerpts)

By Adam Markovitz; Reporting by Jeff Jensen, Adam Markovitz, Keith Staskiewicz, and Sara Vilkomerson – Full article at Entertainment Weekly

ALAN RICKMAN, Severus Snape I’d arrive on the set in full costume and makeup as Snape. There’s something about that costume, and putting in the black lenses and putting on the wig. I was very aware that they were confronted by the Snapeness of me — and so it took a while for them to know that there was somebody else underneath it all.

Alan Rickman: Snape, life as a villain

By Arianna Finos – TrovaCinema; Partial translation courtesy of J.D. Night Ghobhadi and SnitchSeeker; gray text translated by me with the help of Google Translate – submission of a better translation of those parts welcome

“I fight Harry Potter but the children love me.” As a film actor, Alan Rickman is known mainly for his bad guy character roles, including the evil Professor Snape at Hogwarts.

LONDON – Alan Rickman is evil like that. Adults remember the English actor and director for a series of late ’80s criminals, terrorist nutcase Hans Gruber in Die Hard, the ridiculous Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood – Prince of Thieves. But to kids (and guys) around the world Alan Rickman, Renato Zero’s black bob, cruel gaze and bat clothes, is Severus Snape, the dark Potions Master at the school of magic of Harry Potter.

If the Dark Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is identified by the readers/viewers as evil, that Snape is instead a beloved figure: book after book, the potions master has inflicted cruelty to Harry Potter, but also intervened to save him from harm. The sum of twists involving Severus Snape will be viewed in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part II , the final film of the saga in theaters on July 13. “Ms. Rowling has built with care and depth Snape’s personality, enigmatic and intriguing as the Mona Lisa. So kids love Snape: they perceive that in him, despite the fierce look, there is something intriguing, that ignites their imagination. ” Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman, 65, is eloquently spoken, sitting in a lounge at the Mandarin Hotel in London.

Alan Rickman Skips Die Hard, Talks About The Theatah at BAM

By Mark Asch – The L Magazine

Alan Rickman told the audience that he didn’t actually watch Die Hard last night at BAM, where he introduced one screening and sat for a Q&A for an avid audience of BAM boosters after another: though it’s on TV “93 times a night,” and as an inveterate channel-surfer he often comes across it, he doesn’t like to watch himself act, and assumes most other actors don’t, either (“Wrong… wrong… wrong…” is what all actors say to their past selves, he says). His loss—the slightly faded, slightly grainy, super-widescreen print looked textured and structurally resplendent, just like the movie.

Alan Rickman Is a Corrupt Banker (in John Gabriel Borkman)

By Alexis Soloski – The Village Voice

Alan Rickman has a voice that’s bitter and rich and sinister, like a malevolent cup of coffee. “At drama school, it was the subject of a great deal of criticism and a lot of hard work,” he says during a recent phone interview. “They said I had a spastic soft palate. They were right.” Actually, he can’t discern his distinctive tones. “I don’t hear what anybody else hears,” he says. “I’m six-foot-one, I wear size 11 shoes, and I have this voice.”