For many Alan Rickman is the ultimate villain. He played Hans Gruber, an evil German terrorist, in Die Hard, was Kevin Costner's nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham, in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and portrayed the archetypical unjust Judge Turpin in Tim Burton's 2007 vision of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Meanwhile, the Harry Potter generation simply know him as Severus Snape, Hogwarts' Potions Master with a penchant for the dark arts.
He never got typecast the way a Dennis Hopper or Willem Dafoe did however, turning down a villainous Bond role in Goldeneye to avoid that particular pitfall. Instead he made British dramas, period pieces, romantic comedies, and even some science fiction to keep things fresh.
In his latest movie, Nobel Son, Rickman is not some much of a villain, but merely a primo, grade-A asshole. Richman's character, Eli Michaelson, is a brilliant professor who displays distinct contempt for all his intellectual inferiors, though he does appreciate the nubile bodies of his idolizing students. When his son is kidnapped the day before hes due to accept his Nobel Prize for Chemistry, the professor is such an egotistical jerk, he think it's just another screw up perpetrated by his disappointing offspring.
Rickman relished the scenes of snobbery and superiority, and continued having fun while doing press for the film. It's important to note when he cracked a smile and laughed, otherwise on the page his dry sarcasm might reflect badly. He's not actually a dick. (He even managed to smile warmly within a freezing cold studio space.) He's just having fun, cracking one-liners like the action heroes he used to foil.
Alan Rickman: Good morning. Welcome to Alaska.
Question: Well, at least you're friendlier in person.
AR: He's sweet in the movie.
Q: Compared to whom?
AR: Most other men, probably.
Q: Did you have fun with the ego of this guy?
AR: Well, it's always good to let rip in areas that you're normally supposed to be more polite in and self-effacing, so yeah.
Q: Did you walk around with your head a little higher when you were in that space?
AR: [Laughs] No, at this point in my life. I think I know where the acting stops and the life hopefully begins. There's a cutoff point when they say cut.
Q: What jumped out about the script?
AR: What I love about Randy [Miller] and Jody [Savin]'s work is that you can't pin any labels on it at all. It's going to be there to discover as you shoot it. Yeah, it's funny. Yes, it's sort of who did what, when and how, and it's got classic thriller elements to it, it's all of that stuff. That's not a bad thing. It pulls the rug out from people's preconceptions so you have to sit down and be told a story.
Q: Does this movie have your first ever fart joke?
AR: I think it does, yes. I think that would be a first. [Laughs]
Q: How did it feel to go scatological?
AR:[b/] Well, you know, he's Mr. Basic Needs, isn't he? I eat. I take my pants off. I loosen my stays. I am man.
Q: After all he's been through, is Prof Michaelson just going to go back to seducing the students at the end?
AR: It may have gone down to an ember but the flame, the phoenix, will rise.
Q: You don't think he'd be humbled by losing everything?
AR: Those kind of guys, they may be down but they're never out.
Q: So he didn't learn anything?
AR: He will learn nothing. [laughs] It's not his aim to learn anything because he knows everything.
Q: Did you study any chemistry in preparation?
AR: It would've been a waste of time because I think I vaguely remember getting four percent for physics at school. It was not an area of expertise for me, anything to do with science.
Q: Was it hard to memorize the technical terms?
AR: No, because you often have to memorize things you don't understand in other roles. At least I didn't have to demonstrate any detailed knowledge or experiments or anything.
Q: Did you know anyone in academia you took inspiration from?
AR: Nobody specifically. It was made very clear to me that this was, in some ways, a portrait of Randy's father, who I didn't know, don't know.
Q: Those scenes with Mary Steenburgen as your wife are pretty brutal. How were they to play?
AR: You had to kind of figure out why the hell is she still with this man? There's got to be some reason that they got together. Thank God for the scene in the back of the car I think really, when you just think well, there is some knowledge, some affection, some sense of the past. I guess like a lot of marriages, people cling to a memory, maybe for too long as the reality [laughs] eats the flesh from the bones and you lose the power of choice or something. But I think a lot of the time you're just grateful, not just, but you're really grateful to be working with someone like Mary where no acting is required because you're just listening and answering. There are no judgments being made of the characters; You just play the situation that you're in.
Q: Do you look for the same things in scripts now as years ago?
AR: Older characters, I'm looking for. [laughs] I'm never really looking for anything. I'm looking to be surprised and to have one's instincts engaged with a piece of writing rather than anything planned. I think if you make decisions before you read something then you're not free. I'd much rather just turn page one and start to get a flavor of a character. That's what an actor is, I think. You're a bundle of instincts that you fling at something called training and you hope training orders it a bit for you so that you can make choices but ultimately you're dependent on your instincts and your imagination and that's something you can't pin down.
Q: Do you want to read everything?
AR:[/b[ I do, yeah. I'm sure it's different for everybody and there's a lot of independent movies out there trying to get funded. There's a big pileup of scripts -- I'm not talking about me -- in front of actors. Sometimes you can't think because there's too much stuff to read so therefore agents and managers and all of that try to make your life a bit simpler, but sometimes it can create a block. Somewhere in there is a Nobel Son, a script that's really beautifully written and is fighting to be read by somebody who will help it get made. So I don't know quite what you do except what I do [which] is say, "I need to know about everything."
Q: Do you think there will be less indie films in these economic times?
AR: I suppose the truth of the matter is that the two things that are probably not going to be hurt so much will be movies and takeaway pizza parlors. [laughs] You know, everybody can rent a movie and eat pizza. Maybe there'll be more made because the budgets are lower and they can be shot quicker.
Q: What do you think is the future of the U.K. film industry?
AR: It's very dependent on the future of the U.S. film industry. We're like the 51st state in every way I think. We can make indigenous products like Atonement I guess, but they can't be made without American money and American green lights. It's all very linked.
But the film industry is a reflection of the society you live in, isn't it? It's a question of what stories do people want to be told? How much do you honor that human need or how much do movies just become the thing that's going on while you're ramming popcorn in your face and spending a couple of hours that you may never get back. You could do that in an interesting way or you could do it in a mindless way I suppose, and that depends on the way the world goes and what it thinks movies are for. Good luck, Obama, that's what I say.
Q: Do you read theater projects just as often?
AR: Yeah, yeah. I've just directed a play in London at the Donmar Warehouse and that was very much about Michael Grandage saying, "Would you like to direct this play?" And me reading it and saying, "Yes, I would and I am free for these eight weeks." If it's ever possible to jump quickly with a piece of theater or see a space, then of course I will and always will.
Q: Are there any plans to turn the plays you directed into movies?
AR: Not the last two, no. But I am attached to direct a movie, which is sort of linking British and American film industry, The House in Paris which is a beautiful book by Elizabeth Bowen. With a bit of luck, we might even shoot it this year.
Q: Will you act in it?
AR: No. I'll just direct.
Q: We don't always see you making the rounds for all your films. Do you make more of a PR effort for the smaller films?
AR: Yeah. I don't know how to make the answer longer but I guess publicity is part of the life of a movie and you have to accept that. People have to be persuaded to go and see it, and if you like the project, which I do, then one's happy to do it. Some of the bigger budget things don't need so much help.
Q: Have you ever done a movie just for the money?
AR: No. That doesn't mean to say I haven't appeared in some shit but it's not always controllable. I wouldn't know how to open my mouth if I didn't think there's a reason to be here. I mean, I'm sure you could throw something at me that's on a DVD and say, "You must have done that for the money," but no. No, I wouldn't know how to do that.
Nobel Son opens in theaters nationwide on Friday, December 5.
He never got typecast the way a Dennis Hopper or Willem Dafoe did however, turning down a villainous Bond role in Goldeneye to avoid that particular pitfall. Instead he made British dramas, period pieces, romantic comedies, and even some science fiction to keep things fresh.
In his latest movie, Nobel Son, Rickman is not some much of a villain, but merely a primo, grade-A asshole. Richman's character, Eli Michaelson, is a brilliant professor who displays distinct contempt for all his intellectual inferiors, though he does appreciate the nubile bodies of his idolizing students. When his son is kidnapped the day before hes due to accept his Nobel Prize for Chemistry, the professor is such an egotistical jerk, he think it's just another screw up perpetrated by his disappointing offspring.
Rickman relished the scenes of snobbery and superiority, and continued having fun while doing press for the film. It's important to note when he cracked a smile and laughed, otherwise on the page his dry sarcasm might reflect badly. He's not actually a dick. (He even managed to smile warmly within a freezing cold studio space.) He's just having fun, cracking one-liners like the action heroes he used to foil.
Alan Rickman: Good morning. Welcome to Alaska.
Question: Well, at least you're friendlier in person.
AR: He's sweet in the movie.
Q: Compared to whom?
AR: Most other men, probably.
Q: Did you have fun with the ego of this guy?
AR: Well, it's always good to let rip in areas that you're normally supposed to be more polite in and self-effacing, so yeah.
Q: Did you walk around with your head a little higher when you were in that space?
AR: [Laughs] No, at this point in my life. I think I know where the acting stops and the life hopefully begins. There's a cutoff point when they say cut.
Q: What jumped out about the script?
AR: What I love about Randy [Miller] and Jody [Savin]'s work is that you can't pin any labels on it at all. It's going to be there to discover as you shoot it. Yeah, it's funny. Yes, it's sort of who did what, when and how, and it's got classic thriller elements to it, it's all of that stuff. That's not a bad thing. It pulls the rug out from people's preconceptions so you have to sit down and be told a story.
Q: Does this movie have your first ever fart joke?
AR: I think it does, yes. I think that would be a first. [Laughs]
Q: How did it feel to go scatological?
AR:[b/] Well, you know, he's Mr. Basic Needs, isn't he? I eat. I take my pants off. I loosen my stays. I am man.
Q: After all he's been through, is Prof Michaelson just going to go back to seducing the students at the end?
AR: It may have gone down to an ember but the flame, the phoenix, will rise.
Q: You don't think he'd be humbled by losing everything?
AR: Those kind of guys, they may be down but they're never out.
Q: So he didn't learn anything?
AR: He will learn nothing. [laughs] It's not his aim to learn anything because he knows everything.
Q: Did you study any chemistry in preparation?
AR: It would've been a waste of time because I think I vaguely remember getting four percent for physics at school. It was not an area of expertise for me, anything to do with science.
Q: Was it hard to memorize the technical terms?
AR: No, because you often have to memorize things you don't understand in other roles. At least I didn't have to demonstrate any detailed knowledge or experiments or anything.
Q: Did you know anyone in academia you took inspiration from?
AR: Nobody specifically. It was made very clear to me that this was, in some ways, a portrait of Randy's father, who I didn't know, don't know.
Q: Those scenes with Mary Steenburgen as your wife are pretty brutal. How were they to play?
AR: You had to kind of figure out why the hell is she still with this man? There's got to be some reason that they got together. Thank God for the scene in the back of the car I think really, when you just think well, there is some knowledge, some affection, some sense of the past. I guess like a lot of marriages, people cling to a memory, maybe for too long as the reality [laughs] eats the flesh from the bones and you lose the power of choice or something. But I think a lot of the time you're just grateful, not just, but you're really grateful to be working with someone like Mary where no acting is required because you're just listening and answering. There are no judgments being made of the characters; You just play the situation that you're in.
Q: Do you look for the same things in scripts now as years ago?
AR: Older characters, I'm looking for. [laughs] I'm never really looking for anything. I'm looking to be surprised and to have one's instincts engaged with a piece of writing rather than anything planned. I think if you make decisions before you read something then you're not free. I'd much rather just turn page one and start to get a flavor of a character. That's what an actor is, I think. You're a bundle of instincts that you fling at something called training and you hope training orders it a bit for you so that you can make choices but ultimately you're dependent on your instincts and your imagination and that's something you can't pin down.
Q: Do you want to read everything?
AR:[/b[ I do, yeah. I'm sure it's different for everybody and there's a lot of independent movies out there trying to get funded. There's a big pileup of scripts -- I'm not talking about me -- in front of actors. Sometimes you can't think because there's too much stuff to read so therefore agents and managers and all of that try to make your life a bit simpler, but sometimes it can create a block. Somewhere in there is a Nobel Son, a script that's really beautifully written and is fighting to be read by somebody who will help it get made. So I don't know quite what you do except what I do [which] is say, "I need to know about everything."
Q: Do you think there will be less indie films in these economic times?
AR: I suppose the truth of the matter is that the two things that are probably not going to be hurt so much will be movies and takeaway pizza parlors. [laughs] You know, everybody can rent a movie and eat pizza. Maybe there'll be more made because the budgets are lower and they can be shot quicker.
Q: What do you think is the future of the U.K. film industry?
AR: It's very dependent on the future of the U.S. film industry. We're like the 51st state in every way I think. We can make indigenous products like Atonement I guess, but they can't be made without American money and American green lights. It's all very linked.
But the film industry is a reflection of the society you live in, isn't it? It's a question of what stories do people want to be told? How much do you honor that human need or how much do movies just become the thing that's going on while you're ramming popcorn in your face and spending a couple of hours that you may never get back. You could do that in an interesting way or you could do it in a mindless way I suppose, and that depends on the way the world goes and what it thinks movies are for. Good luck, Obama, that's what I say.
Q: Do you read theater projects just as often?
AR: Yeah, yeah. I've just directed a play in London at the Donmar Warehouse and that was very much about Michael Grandage saying, "Would you like to direct this play?" And me reading it and saying, "Yes, I would and I am free for these eight weeks." If it's ever possible to jump quickly with a piece of theater or see a space, then of course I will and always will.
Q: Are there any plans to turn the plays you directed into movies?
AR: Not the last two, no. But I am attached to direct a movie, which is sort of linking British and American film industry, The House in Paris which is a beautiful book by Elizabeth Bowen. With a bit of luck, we might even shoot it this year.
Q: Will you act in it?
AR: No. I'll just direct.
Q: We don't always see you making the rounds for all your films. Do you make more of a PR effort for the smaller films?
AR: Yeah. I don't know how to make the answer longer but I guess publicity is part of the life of a movie and you have to accept that. People have to be persuaded to go and see it, and if you like the project, which I do, then one's happy to do it. Some of the bigger budget things don't need so much help.
Q: Have you ever done a movie just for the money?
AR: No. That doesn't mean to say I haven't appeared in some shit but it's not always controllable. I wouldn't know how to open my mouth if I didn't think there's a reason to be here. I mean, I'm sure you could throw something at me that's on a DVD and say, "You must have done that for the money," but no. No, I wouldn't know how to do that.
Nobel Son opens in theaters nationwide on Friday, December 5.
VIEW 15 of 15 COMMENTS
thejuanupsman:
Rickman is a treasure. Nice interview.
tarion:
One of my favourite actors.