The late Hollywood star Alan Rickman starred in several movies throughout his decades-long career and is still known for his work in the Die Hard and Harry Potter franchises. While Hans Gruber and Severus Snape went on to be his most famous roles, the actor had complications in accepting the offer for both. He was reluctant to accept the offer for Bruce Willis’ Die Hard, claiming that he did not want to do an action movie.
While he eventually accepted the role of the antagonist in the 1988 movie, it would later become one of the reasons he initially declined the part of Professor Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Alan Rickman Was Hesitant to Accept the Harry Potter Offer
Bruce Willis‘ 1988 film Die Hard was Alan Rickman’s first feature film, and the actor was highly praised for his portrayal of the movie’s antagonist, Hans Gruber. Following the 1988 movie, he continued working on the silver screen and once again became the talk of the town with his villainous role in Kevin Reynolds ‘ Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
However, the actor has issues with being typecast as the antagonist of a story. And he was able to break out of that image with his versatile performance throughout the next decade. So when he was offered the role of Professor Snape, which appeared antagonistic to him, in the 2001 film Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, he denied the proposal.
The director of the film, Chris Columbus, talked about pursuing Rickman with the offer during an interview for the 20th anniversary of the first Harry Potter film. He told A.V. Club that the actor “was reluctant because he didn’t want to be typecast as a villain.”
The director further stated, “Particularly after Die Hard, and I guess Robin Hood [Prince Of Thieves].” As it is well known that the Bottle Shock star eventually accepted the role of potions master at Hogwarts, the director shared that Rickman was given one special privilege to accept the part.
J.K. Rowling Gave Alan Rickman an Insight into Snape’s Character
Director Chris Columbus shared further in his interview that they finally convinced Alan Rickman to do the movie. He also stated that the actor seemed even more intrigued by his character after the Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling shared what would happen to Snape throughout the series. He told A.V. Club,
“We convinced him to do it, and then J.K. Rowling took him out to dinner and told him something about what was going to happen to Snape throughout the series and in the seventh book.”
The director shared that he noticed Rickman doing “little idiosyncrasies” with his performances. However, he “couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.” When he would ask him about them, he used to tell him to wait to read the seventh book.
And it did make sense to him after he read the seventh book, which was released in 2007. “Oh, that was brilliant, his choice,” he said. While the whole series portrays Snape as an antagonistic professor, the series finale reveals him to be the one who has been protecting Harry, making him one of the most complicated characters in the fantasy adventure series.
The Harry Potter film series is available on Max.
Source: A.V. Club
