Leading up to the DVD release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Warner Bros France released a rare interview with Alan Rickman in which the actor delves into his portrayal of Severus Snape throughout the Harry Potter film series, speaking about his reluctance to do interviews about his character in the past, the brilliance of set designer Stuart Craig, why the younger actors feared him on the set of the first film, and why it is that Snape doesn’t yell.


Harry Potter : Interview d'Alan Rickman by WarnerBrosPicturesFrance

Let’s start by talking about the final chapter of the story. What, for you, are the central themes of the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, which as we know finally gets resolution at its termination of the Harry Potter saga?
Alan Rickman: Well, the end of any great story, I suppose, it’s got to move toward a happy ending. In one sense, growing up with Harry Potter you go from 12 years old to a whole school career. I remember that. What it was like going to school at 11 and leaving at 18. I suppose you get some hindsight.

And courage, perhaps? Has courage came to this final part?
Rickman:Sure. For everybody, yes … and moral values, and choices, and right and wrong.

How does the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 feel in comparison to the rest of the series? In what ways have the dangers and darkness perhaps increased?
Rickman: It’s a very gradual thing with the books and the stories. There’s no other way of putting it. If you go to the center of the story with those three kids, you’re watching them become young adults, and so everything changes. They’re three little innocent faces, only three-foot off the ground at the beginning, and then by the end they’re meeting the adults more or less at eye level. Romance has entered their lives and, as I said, choosing big choices in life. They’re becoming adults, so it’s incremental. It’s not as if you can jump from the film at the beginning to the one at the end and say, “Well this is different from that in these ways.” It’s very much an incremental piece of masterful storytelling.

I know we don’t want to give away too much about Snape, but I find a rather interesting line, which is “to burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can inflict on ourselves.” That’s a line that might be familiar to you. It’s from Blood Wedding. It’s not actually from Harry Potter. Without giving away too much, how much light does that shine on Severus Snape?
Rickman: Well, he’s very focused. He lives within very tight confines – emotionally, physically. When we finally got to play a scene in what appeared to be his house, you know I often wondered what that would look like, I remember walking onto the set and saying to (designer) Stuart Craig, “I don’t know whether he’d have all these pictures on the walls.” The books, I could understand. But in a sense, Stuart was absolutely right. This was the house that his parents built. In a way, all he does is go there and you can’t believe that he would go into that kitchen and cook any food. You wonder what he eats. Is there a takeaway somewhere at Hogwarts he occasionally orders in from? Because you can’t imagine that there is any other agenda in his life than the one he’s set himself.

You haven’t spoken much about his character over the years. How important was it to you to maintain an integrity about that?
Rickman: Very important. The world we live in now is one where we leap frog ourselves all the time, and we have to give interviews about things before people have seen them so a lot of innocence is taken away from not just children – because of course grown-ups have been enjoying this series of books – but of course I come into contact with a lot of hopeful little faces clutching whatever is their latest copy of the book. And we’ve all had this experience of being pointed out to children in the street or on a red carpet somewhere. And once they get over their confusion that I don’t have a load of black hair then you can see a huge conversation going on with themselves – with this book that has opened up their imaginations – and I’ve just never wanted to get in the way of that because it’s precious and, as I say, a kind of innocence that you can’t rip away from people.



Snape and Dumbledore share some intense scenes. Where do they rank among your favorite onscreen moments in the series?
Rickman: When I walked onto the set to work with Richard Harris – that’s iconic. You think, “I’m actually sitting in a make-up chair next to this guy, and I’ve grown up watching him.” Moving on to Michael, similarly, when I was at drama school [he was] an iconic figure to young actors. So there’s that level to it, which is just that you’re working with these people, and then there’s a human level too, which is you get to know them. Michael I knew before, anyway, but sitting in a make-up chair with Richard Harris and he’s talking about Beckett and Shakespeare and Pirandello. Then you go onto the set, Michael Gambon, you’re in awe and only this far away from him making you laugh. So you’re proud if you’ve got a take where he hasn’t cracked you up.

Well, Snape has only to say, “Turn to page 394” to have me quaking in my boots, never mind the children of Hogwarts. To what degree is the voice key to this forbidding character?
Rickman: Well if you’re playing somebody you don’t judge them, so I don’t know about things like forbidding or scary or mysterious, or anything like that. You take the information you’ve got in the writing. Jo Rowling’s quite clear. She said he never raises his voice. “Well, that’s helpful. Okay. I’ll do that then.”

Dan, Emma and Rupert did admit awhile back to being a little bit scared of you in real life, and yet anything I’ve seen from the film – from the eye ticks to your laughing - are in very good form. But did you keep a stern continence to them for the sake of their dramatic art?
Rickman: There was nothing ever deliberate, but the nature of filming is that there’s little or no rehearsal. You go straight into it. And you’re starting with three 12-year-olds. And I walk onto the set with black lenses in my eyes, an all black outfit and a black wig. One thing I can say for sure is that as soon as I put that costume on, something happens. You can’t be someone else inside that outline. It has an effect on me. I would also say you don’t have time because you’re looking for real concentration, and you’re trying to be as helpful to these three young people as possible. So it’s better that I’m focused and not mucking about. So I’m not surprised if they got a bit alarmed, but it was just the nature of the beast.

How important are the aesthetics of a project like Harry Potter to you? The look, the design, the feel of it – does that hugely support the character and the work that you do?
Rickman: Absolutely crucial. I suppose, in a way, the one shame of the advance of CGI is that we started this whole thing going off to locations – Oxford and Gloucester, various gothic corridors – and 10 years later the technique is so sophisticated that you end the film on a pile of old grass with this football stadium of lights around, knowing that they’re going to fill in the background. So you’re imagination really has to work hard by the end of it. But the interiors we’re completely blessed by having absolute genius in Stuart Craig. And there’s still a child in me that goes up to a pillar and I’m this far away from it and I know it’s make of polystyrene, but I have to tap it because it’s so real. Oh no, it’s crucial because your imagination is fed.

Pre-order the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 DVD and Blu-ray sets, out November 11 in the U.S. and December 2 in the UK, at the Amazon links below, or through the official Warner Bros Shop.

Amazon.com (US) - Deathly Hallows 1-disc DVD | Deathly Hallows 1-disc Blu-ray | Deathly Hallows 3-disc Blu-ray triple play | The Complete 8-Film Collection DVD | The Complete 8-Film Collection Blu-ray

Amazon.co.uk (UK) - Deathly Hallows 1-disc DVD | Deathly Hallows 3-disc 3D Blu-ray | Deathly Hallows 3-disc Blu-ray triple play | Deathly Hallows 2-disc DVD | The Complete 8-Film Collection DVD | The Complete 8-Film Collection Blu-ray | The Complete 8-Film Collection BD limited edition

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