If ever there was an award for an actor who was the complete opposite of their most famous movie character, the late Alan Rickman would certainly be one of the top contenders.
Unlike the surly, greasy-haired Potions professor Severus Snape, whom he played across all eight Harry Potter movies, Rickman had an effervescent personality and was kind to children.
Gary Oldman Remembers Alan Rickman’s Kindness on Harry Potter Film Sets
“Alan was kind of like the cheerleader of it,” Gary Oldman, who portrayed Azkaban escapee Sirius Black in four of the films, said at the Toronto International Film Festival, according to Entertainment Weekly. “He was into it, he was doing it, so he was with it and committed to it.”
In addition, Rickman would apparently invite young Potter fans to set every day, so they could watch filming and meet the cast.
“He would bring them in from a school, he’d bring them in from the hospital, he’d bring friends and their kids in every single day for lunchtimes and things,” Oldman remembered. “He’d take kids around to tour the sets, and we’d meet them.”
Oldman continued: “[I] thought that was the most extraordinary thing, that he was in this world that he got to be in, come in every day, and that he knew how much it meant to these kids. So, he wanted to share it.”
Unlike his fellow cast members, Rickman was read into Snape’s ultimate fate by author J.K. Rowling. As Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) recalled in HBO Max’s Back to Hogwarts TV special, “He very, very early said to Jo, ‘I think I need to know what happens.'”
Rickman was sworn to secrecy, of course, forbidden to even divulge information to any of the four Potter directors—Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell and David Yates—prior to the publication of Deathly Hallows. He basically made the Unbreakable Vow, but the knowledge that Hogwarts’ most mean-spirited teacher turned against Voldemort because he was in love with Harry’s mother informed his performance from the very beginning.
“He never told Chris, he never told anyone,” added Radcliffe. “Chris would literally say to him, ‘Why are you doing that?’ And he’d say, ‘I’ll tell you later…'”
Rickman died in January 2016 as the result of pancreatic cancer. He was 69.
The seven Potter books are currently in the process of being re-adapted for an HBO television series, in which Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You) will play the role of Snape. Season one, based on Philosopher’s Stone, premieres Friday, Dec. 25.
