ALAN RICKMAN

By Elisa Leonelli

(Venice Magazine, 1992)

The British actor, most famous in America for his fiendish interpretation of the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves opposite Kevin Costner, shows another side of his talent in Close Your (sic.) Eyes. The film, directed by playwright Stephen Poliakoff, is ostensibly about incest, a love affair between brother and sister, bout touches on several important social themes - the changing sexual attitudes since AIDS, the unregulated development that destroys our environment and the nostalgia for an old fashioned way of life. Although typecast as the bad guy in American movies, like Die Hard and Quigley Down Under, Richman (sic.) is a fine stage actor who has shown a softer and more complex side in another British film seen here last year, Truly, Madly, Deeply. He's now shooting a movie with Tim Robbins about a pop star turned conservative politician, that gives him a chance to expose some of the fallacies of our political system.

Venice: What are some of the themes Close Your Eyes wants to address?

Alan Rickman: It's very much a film about the end of the 80s and the starting of a new decade, the sense of a crossing over from one era to another. Stephen has an agenda, a list of topics, but he also has a particular writer's voice, a crazy jagged imagination that puts one image against another. The title has a sensuous and romantic meaning on one hand, but it's also about blindness on the other, because England has been a pretty blind place for the last 12 years. Part of that has to do with the unmovability of those old houses on the riverbanks of the home counties, as the boat travels slowly past them and children play in the sunshine; its like nothing has changed, whereas a few miles away this awful redevelopment has been going on in the docklands. Interestingly enough, it's mostly empty, because the recession has made itself all too visible. Stephen is saying that there is a middle course to be driven between two opposing forces, it's good to have honesty with people, not shutting yourself off from your neighbors, but also not wildly exploiting the environment you live in, or the people you live with.

Venice: Your character, Sinclair, seems worldly wise and debonair. He embodies and old- fashioned dream women used to have to find a rich and accomplished husband who would protect them, so they wouldn't have to develop a life of their own. Isn't this why your wife in the film is not fulfilled and gets into an passionate affair with her brother?

Alan Rickman: I think Sinclair genuinely loves her, but he's quite controlling, as most men probably are. There are many contradictions in his personality, there's a certain eccentricity to almost everything he does or says, but ultimately he's pretty tolerant and wise. He has a kind of wisdom which one does not usually associate with the British upper classes. Maybe it's because we live in a world without certainties at the moment (from the Berlin wall and the red menace disappearing, to the simple act of making love with somebody becoming a huge uncertainty), that a woman in her position chooses a Sinclair, to build a few walls around herself to feel secure; and maybe that security means that she can take risks with her brother.

Venice: After Robin Hood, did you chose to do the Tim Robbins film because you agree with his political ideas?

Alan Rickman: Yes, I wouldn't be in this film otherwise. I don't listen to other people's reasons, I just do the scripts I want to do; you might as well hang onto what you believe in. "To thine own self be true" sounds like a cliché, but it's worth reminding yourself of that. The film used to be called "Times Are Changing Back," now is "Bob Roberts" and probably will change its title again when it's released. Tim Robbins plays a pop singer who runs for the Senate on a very right -wing platform, and I'm his campaign manager; these are people of the 90's insofar as it's all done in suits and ties with computers. It will be pretty extraordinary having the film come out while George Bush is trying to get reelected.

Venice: What are some of the political issues you feel most passionate about?

Alan Rickman: Different things swim into focus at different times. You could list a whole lot, but at this point in time, because I spent so much of my time up in the air traveling, I look down at planet earth thinking: "why would anybody think that they have a right to anymore of this that anybody else? Why is it so difficult for us all to work out that this extraordinary thing should be looked after and shared equally?" It's as simple as that, I have very broad priorities and I happen to believe that health and education are a right not a privilege so you start from there. I rejoiced the day Margaret Thatcher was kicked out and I live to see the rest of her little band removed as quickly as possible.

Venice: What are some of things (sic.) the film is saying about our political system?

Alan Rickman: In one scene they flash back to the Iran-contra hearings, where Gore Vidal who plays a senator, which was an extraordinary experience, in itself worth being in the movie. Tim Robbins was very sensible, he asked Gore Vidal about a series of topics, for example: "What would you have to say about the Gulf War?," in two sentences he sums the whole thing up. It's not that he solves the problem, but he absolutely and calmly states what it is: We have to create monsters and war in order to justify the arms budget; this year it was Saddam Hussein, before that it was Noriega, before that Khadaffi and before that Castro. It looks like it might be Castro's turn again soon.

Venice: Since you played an archetypal villain in Robin Hood, can you explain why it is necessary for the good guys to kill the bad guys in order to be heros? In my opinion it would be wiser to teach children that it's not right to kill anyone.

Alan Rickman: I find it alarming that you have these ratings for violent films, then kids watch them at home when they're out on video. I don't have children, but I have a goddaughter who's six and she's seen Robin Hood; so she asked me all sorts of detailed questions, one being: "Why did you have to die at the end?" Why couldn't they have just said: "You're not to do that again, and then let you go?" I thought that was a very good question and I didn't have an answer. all I know is that there are very strong differences between working in two dimensions and working in three dimensions, where there is complexity and the possibility to explain things. Human beings are involved in diversity; in cartoon movies; like Robin Hood or Die Hard, it's very black and white, good and bad. So what I very consciously try to do is to insert either humor or ambiguity of some kind, so that people can't just look **** head on, they have to tilt their head slightly, and have the rug pulled out from a bland acceptance of what's going on. 

**** illegible in the original

 

Originally on KelClancy's Page - now not accessable