Alan__Rickman__

The rehearsal of the play “My Name Is Rachel Corrie”, The Royal Court, 2005 Megan Dodds: “Alan Rickman is my favourite director for what he has done with Rachel Corrie. He really inspired me and made me think ‘yes, I can do this’.” (‘WhatsOnStage’, 2005) Katharine Viner: “Working with Alan on a play, I appreciated his vigour and commitment. When we became friends, I came to know his wit, compassion and keen self-mockery. When asked recently about his proudest Royal Court moment, his answer was not about him: he said it was when he took Rachel Corrie’s parents outside the front of the theatre to show them their late daughter’s name in neon lights.” (‘The Guardian’, 2016)

RADA, 1974 “The teacher Elizabeth Pursey made ‘RADA Mouths’ on standard 8mm film* which focused on the mouths of first year students. She then revisited those students at the end of their training to see how the tension around their mouths and their diction had altered. Although Acting is about instinct it is underpinned by technique and discipline, this exercise highlights that. Students mouths on this film include Imelda Staunton and Alan Rickman. In her semi-retirement, Elizabeth continued to work at RADA, giving precise advice to students. Alan Rickman remembered one such time: “A group of second-year students had prepared pieces by Dylan Thomas. Elizabeth stood in front of them: upright, elegant and smiling…The students were busy writing down every timeless word she said. Finally, it was their turn. As the first volunteer walked to the front….she turned and, still smiling, lobbed a grenade: ‘And just remember – it’s not about you.’” […] On the mezzanine between the first and second floor of the RADA building, there are several faded cream wooden boards marking the Bancroft Gold, Silver, Bronze and Vanbrugh Awards, the Kendal, Special and Principal’s Prize and the Liverpool Playhouse Award. The awards began in 1905 and stopped in 1985. One of the recipients of the Bancroft Gold Award, RADA’s highest award, was Alan Rickman, who received it in 1974, the year he graduated.” (‘RADA.aс.uk’) * The original 8mm film have not been digitize and are stored in the RADA archive.

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows“, promo photoshoot “25 November 2009 HP. 6.15 pick-up. To the Flight Shed . . . Cold, wet, draughty but the crew seem miles away so Ralph and I can just get on with inching our way towards the scene. David Y. stubborn as ever about V[oldemort] killing me with a spell. (Impossible to comprehend, not least the resultant wrath of the readers.) Great working with Ralph, though. Direct and true and inventive and free. Back home and Rima (narrative brainbox) says ‘He can’t kill you with a spell – the only one that would do that is Avada Kedavra and it kills instantly – you wouldn’t be able to finish the scene.’ 26 November HP. 6.15 pick-up. And the scene goes on through the day and the angles and lenses. The Death of Snape. Nearly ten years later. At least it’s just down to two actors . . .  It’s the absolute example of what can happen when a couple of actors pick up a scene off the page and work with the story, the space and each other. Stuart Craig’s Boathouse gave it something ironic and everlasting.” (“Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman diaries”)

The 70th Venice Film Festival, Italy, 5 September 2013 “3 September 9.15 → Venice. Then hang around at the Festival desk for ½ an hour before the car to the boat to the Excelsior Hotel. And the camera, photo hordes start locusting. Escape quickly in a boat to Venice and spend the afternoon wandering, buying an ice cream & a handbag for Ms Rima, before the boat back, a lie-down and another boat ride – glorious one, in a taxi for us alone straight to dinner. 4 September 10 Walk into ‘town’ and locust attack. Refuge in a side street after a wander to the beach. 5 September Sleep on and off until nearly 10. Pack. Home to a pervasive sense of the irrelevance of it all which we have to take so seriously. The work is the pleasure but then always the judgement, which can strip the pleasure like turpentine.” (“Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman diaries”)

Los Angeles, 27 June 2005

“Sense and Sensibility”, 1995

‘Latymerian Magazine’, Winter 1962 Did you find Alan in the photographs?

Antony and Cleopatra, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1978 Patrick Stewart: “Alan was perhaps our most distinctive and unique stage and film performer, with a voice and phrasing that teased and taunted, mocked and despaired. I first worked with him at the RSC in Peter Brook’s 1978 production of Antony and Cleopatra with Glenda Jackson. As the Major-Domo of Cleopatra’s court he was commanding, witty and cynical. His world-weary tolerance of those around him stays with me vividly. He is irreplaceable.” (The Guardian, 2016)

Emma Thompson: “Shooting began in November 1996 on Scotland’s east coast, where the weather changes from cerulean perfection to wild tempest with all the caprice and violent unpredictability of Robert De Niro’s taxi driver. All hopes of being warmer indoors collapsed when our studio turned out to be a converted beet mill, a tall brick refrigerator of a building. Rocket heaters blew uselessly into the void. Force-eight winds battered the rafters, giving the sound crew instant ulcers, and the bus shelter built by production designer Robin Cameron Don was plucked from its moorings in the village and destroyed. “We may have to do a spot of post-synching,” screeched Alan, leaning into the gale at a 45-degree angle. The tide was always against us. We shot on beaches until the sea lapped at our ankles. One by one, every individual in our little caravan wheezed, blanched, and fell over. The only ones to escape were Alan and Seamus - but then Alan was concentrating so hard that he didn’t even notice the onset of frostbite in three of his toes. A typical day went something like this: rise in the dark, shower, creep into the bitter dawn, and try to read the sky as we drive to the location. Change in damp trailer, first warming footwear up in a microwave oven. Trot into fog/snow/hail/whatever, hoping not to get too cold to move lips. Find Alan’s nose sticking out of a quantity of black Gore-Tex and ask it questions. Settle on action and act till toes freeze, whereupon return to trailer to re-microwave shoes and gaze longingly at a bottle of Macallan. Back out after defrosting, and so it goes on until about 4:00 p.m., by which time we lose the light, and there’s no life left in us. Fall upon whisky, return to hotel, sit under hot tap, eat with sainted mother, bed at nine. On days off we would walk into St. Andrews (golf mecca) and buy knitwear. Alan makes you laugh with his dry-as-cuttlefish wit, remains calm in the face of all the crises a shoot inevitably brings, and has that capacity, essential in any director, to create a family in which each member is equally valued. He is, I suppose, the ideal parent – consistent, judicious and intrigued. I saw him most recently in Los Angeles, where we visited Steve and Blondell at their computer graphics facility, where they were working on the film. It was odd to watch images of the frozen North in all that Californian warmth. “Jeez,” said Steve, “I know it was cold, but boy was it beautiful.” It made us melancholy. Said Alan reflectively, “I think that experience would almost have been worth losing three toes.” (Mirabella Magazine, 1997)

Golden Globe Awards, January 19, 1997 “3pm Car to Judy, then to pick up Louise and on to the Golden Globes. Ian McK. won, we won, I won . . .! . . .! Flash lights, speeches, uneaten food, Stephen Rea, Brenda Blethyn, seeing Anthony win best film – Hollywood hoopla. Some dark rooms or tents filled with flowers and people standing about.” “Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman diaries”

18 June 2000 “6pm Royal Court for run-through(ish) for – Aung San Suu Kyi benefit. 7.45 Show. Thanks to Philip Hedley’s brilliant sense of balance and organisation it was genuinely enjoyable. Mark Thomas (great), Richard W., David Hare, Glenda Jackson, Miriam K[arlin], Tim [West] & Prunella [Scales], Kate Williams, Fascinating A.; jiving Lindy Hoppers, Glenys & Neil K. jiving together at the beginning of the evening before Glenys’ terrific speech. Amazing woman in support of amazing woman.” (“Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman diaries”)