It is with a heavy heart that we write this post. Alan Rickman, best known to many as Severus Snape, has passed away at the age of 69 after a battle with cancer. A statement from his family reads:
“The actor and director Alan Rickman has died from cancer at the age of 69. He was surrounded by family and friends.”
Another who has left us soon but will “Always” be in our hearts. If you haven’t seen any of his films outside the Potter franchise, you should take some time this weekend to get to know him as an actor. From Die Hard, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Quigly Down Under to Bottle Shock, Galaxy Quest and CBGB he was an immensely talented man.
His costars from the Potter films and beyond have begun to share their feelings on his passing. We find ourselves unable to speak, or type, so we’ll let them do the talking.
There are no words to express how shocked and devastated I am to hear of Alan Rickman's death. He was a magnificent actor & a wonderful man.
I'm very sad to hear about Alan today. I feel so lucky to have worked and spent time with such a special man and actor. I'll really miss our conversations. RIP Alan. We love you
Alan Rickman was a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote his new film A Little Chaos, which he directed and starred in alongside Kate Winslet. A Little Chaos, will be released in theaters on June 26, 2015. The short description of the film is as follows: Two talented landscape artists become romantically entangled while building a garden in King Louis XIV’s palace at Versailles.
The full interview can bet watched here, but it is not official so it may get taken down:
Alan Rickman recently sat down with Variety to talk about his new project A Little Chaos, which he is directing as well as starring in. The film is ‘a period drama about a female landscape gardener who finds herself thrust into the court of Louis XIV.’ The film debuts at the Toronto Film Festival on Saturday and hopes to find a distributor. A piece of the interview may be read below; read the full thing here.
You direct as well as act in the film. Was that difficult to juggle?
I think there should be a law against it, but other people manage somehow. Of course, you think about Orson Welles and think shut up and get on with it. It was an economic necessity for me to do it, and I was gifted with an incredibly supportive crew. Secondly, Louis doesn’t move very much. People come to him.
It’s been more than a decade since the last film you directed, “The Winter Guest,” came out. Why the delay?
A little thing called Harry Potter got in the way. That came along in 2000 and though it was just seven weeks out of year, it made it impossible to direct a movie. I’ve spent a year and half of my life on this one. Once my throat was attacked by a snake, it freed me up to go and do this.
Kate’s character and her struggle to be taken seriously for her work seems so modern despite the period trappings. Was that part of the project’s appeal for you?
As a man in society, it’s always salutatory to be reminded of a time when women had to fight to have any proper function other than being decorative and not having a job or being controlled by men.
I don’t think I’ve ever been more or less fascinated by Louis XIV and the whole Versailles thing than anybody else. I would not have ever predicted I’d have made a movie about that period, let alone make a period piece. But the contemporary nature of the writing appealed to me and the highest compliment I’ve received is that people tell me they forget it’s a period movie because the relationship between Kate and Matthias is so strong and subtle.
Was it difficult to bring the court of Louis XIV to life and all its opulence on a limited budget?
From my years in theater I know that limitations are sometimes good for the imagination.
Alan Rickman recently starred in the short film Dust from One Giant Production and the 7-minute long film is now available to watch online (as discovered by MTV). It is a short film starring Alan, Jodie Whittaker & Lola Albert. The film is a bit on the creepy side, so parents do use caution when letting younger viewers watch!
Dust is the short story of a man who follows a young girl and her mum home from school one day. He waits outside their house until nightfall before breaking in. Once inside, events take an unexpected turn…
Last night J.K. Rowling held a fundraising event for her charity, Lumos, at the Harry Potter Studio Tour where a bunch of Harry Potter cast and crew attended. Emma Watson, Evanna Lynch, Warwick Davis, Alan Rickman and David Heyman all showed their support for the author. Photos of the stars at the event may be viewed over at SnithSeeker. Sky News interviewed Rowling at the event where she discussed the charity as well as the success of Harry Potter.
“As far back as 2000 I knew I would never top Harry Potter. I knew that before the series ended. If you’ve had the kind of success that you never expected you can think ‘oh no, how dreadful I’ll never ever top that’, or you can say ‘how incredibly marvellous and liberating that I made money beyond my wildest dreams and that I can affect issues I really care about’.”
Of the charity’s mission, which states “No child should be denied a family life because they are poor, disabled or from an ethnic minority. Lumos works to support the 8 million children in institutions worldwide to regain their right to a family life and to end the institutionalisation of children,” Rowling says:
“There are eight million children globally being raised in institutions and everything we know about institutionalisation tells us it is harmful to children’s physical and mental health. Drug taking and suicide are more likely and a lot of these children may be trafficked or end up in the sex trade. To take a child from their family we know must be damaging, it’s the worst thing you can do to a child.”
She added: “These themes are in the Harry Potter books. Voldemort […] was himself raised in an institution so, spookily, it was something I was very much thinking about. But we’ve started where the situation is particularly acute in Eastern Europe where there has been a cultural acceptance of institutionalisation that thankfully in the UK we’ve really overcome.”
Alan Rickman was recently a guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to promote his newest film, CBCB, out in theatres tomorrow (NY and LA for now!) Watch two clips below:
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