Alan Rickman.
Photo: Desiree Navarro/WireImage
The most tragic British loss in recent times is, of course, the passing of esteemed actor Alan Rickman. Hans Gruber to some, Professor Snape to others, the wicked supervillain from Love, Actually to all: He was a titan onscreen. And quite the little gossip hound off-screen. Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman, a posthumous compilation of Rickman’s diaries, will be released by UK publisher Canongate on October 4. Rickman began writing in 1992, amounting to 26 volumes up to his death in 2016. The Guardian has published some excerpts of Rickman being especially charming, opinionated, and candid in his writing. Below, tidbits we learned from the non-Horcrux diary of Alan Rickman.
He was tentative about taking on the role of Snape.
On August 23, 2000, Rickman accepted his role in the first Harry Potter film. The next day, he writes that he was “feeling a bit nothing about HP which really disturbs me.”
he really didn’t like the iconic Harry Potter theme music.
He writes that the first movie “acquires a scale and depth that matches the hideous score by John Williams” on the night of the premiere.
he loved Prisoner of Azkaban, though.
“The day got off to a fabulous start with the screen guillotining on to my head, a sudden, swift blackout followed by day-long melancholy,” he writes on July 30, 2003. “Alfonso [Cuarón, director] was quietly ballistic with me. I love him too much to let it last too long so I wailed offset and we sorted it out.”
Helena Bonham Carter has a middle-school boy’s sense of humor.
On March 10, 2008, Rickman writes, “The line ‘take out your wand’ reduces Helena Bonham Carter to helpless mirth and will be a bit of a Waterloo come Thursday.”
Speaking of Helena Bonham Carter, Rickman was kind of a Tim Burton stan.
He calls the 2008 BAFTAs “meaningless” because they didn’t nominate Sweeney Todd. Then, he thinks the Alice in Wonderland remake was “absolutely ravishing — strange and deep and complex and beautiful.”
About a Boy, on the other hand …
“The kind of depressing English film where single mothers and Amnesty workers are ugly people in oversized sweaters.”
To some degree, he was aware of Potter Puppet Pals.
At the premiere for Deathly Hallows Part Two, he writes of “thousands screaming and singing, ‘Snape, Snape, Severus Snape … ‘”
He thought the last page of deathly hallows was “genius.”
Shush.
He had some shady things to write about Emma Watson.
On the day of his “guillotining,” another source of distress was Watson’s diction, which was “this side of Albania at times.” In 2010, he reads in Vogue that Watson’s “producers” gave her a vintage Rolex as a wrap gift. The incredulous quotation marks are his own.
Making a movie with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in the ’90s sounds pretty fratty.
“Affleck crashes in, later Matt Damon,” he writes of filming Dogma in 1997. “The room is suddenly full of baseball caps, popping cans of water/iced tea/whatever, peeling oranges, potato chips, cigarette smoke. We bungee-jump our way through the script.”
He side-eyed latecomers at the theater.
At a production of Private Lives in 2002 he notes “that Nicole Kidman & Tobey Maguire arrived half-hour late. Why come in?” Petty prince!
Jimmy Kimmel Live! is a “slightly scary” place.
During a 2003 appearance to promote Love, Actually, Rickman has a joke bleeped, and to make matters worse, he was subjected to “the horrors of Toby Keith singing ‘American Soldier.’”
Liam Gallagher is “an absolute tosser as a person.”
Rickman liked his singing voice but couldn’t handle the shenanigans.
“Versace rules.”
No further questions.
He went to Brian Cox’s birthday party in 1996.
Shockingly, this is one entry that has no crazy celebrity goss or scandalous takes.
You will not guess what song he requested to be played at his funeral.
“Uptown Funk.”