Charlie Rose interviews Alan Rickman

June 7, 2002, PBS

 

Charlie Rose and Alan Rickman are seated opposite each other at a round table; CR to the right and AR to the left.  AR is wearing a dark jacket, brownish-grey shirt and a dark tie.

 

CR:  Alan Rickman is here.  He began his career on stage in London.  He came to Hollywood to star opposite Bruce Willis in Die Hard.  With that film and most recently with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, he has redefined the “bad guy”, the villain.  The New Republic once said, “His villains have exposed a comic side on the edge of menace.”  He is currently playing Elyot Chase in Private Lives on Broadway.  The production just won the Tony award for Best Revival of a Play.  It is Rickman’s first leading role in a comedy.  Here is a look at that performance.

 

(Ninety- second clip from PL:  Elyot and Amanda in Paris flat.  Begins with Elyot’s line: “It’s an awfully bad reflection on our characters.  We ought to be absolutely tortured with conscience.”  Ends with his line: “Never mind.  It’s nice to think they’d sort of back us up.”

 

CR:   I’m pleased to have him at this table for the first time.  Welcome.

 

AR:   Nice to be here.  (Softly) Thank you.

 

CR:   Uh, tell me where you think Private Lives is in the great spectrum of romantic comedies.  Is it near the top?

 

AR:   (Pauses; clears throat.) Well, there was a point in rehearsals when we were trying to, you know, build some sort of shape, uh, or some structure that would help us to get through the evening because it was an incredibly demanding piece to do.  And I said, “Well it’s like three plays in one – the first act is like playing a restoration comedy, the second act is like moving swiftly to Chekhov and then the third act is Feydeau”.  So, um, and the fact that Noël Coward pulls all three of those rhythms and identities off, puts it pretty high up.

 

CR:   Pretty high.  Yeah.  And he wrote it like in three or four days.

 

AR:   I think it was fast, yeah, which is staggering.  (big smile)

 

CR:   (Laughs)  That’s pretty fast, wouldn’t you say?  And it’s staggering if it has all the elements you say, you know, from there… to Chekhov, to…

 

AR:   It’s a masterpiece, really.  I mean, I wasn’t sure… I, uh, we all came to it very innocently.  Um, I’d only ever seen it once before, Lindsay, I don’t know had ever seen it and Howard Davies, actually when he was asked to direct it, turned it down.  He just said “Well, I don’t want to direct Noël Coward”, and I wasn’t sure that I’d ever wanted to be in a Noël Coward play, and… uh, the smart producers actually said to him, “Um, have you – have you ever read it?” and he said, “Well no I haven’t”.  They said, “Could we suggest you read it.”  (Smiles)

 

CR:   (Laughs)  Yes.  That would be good.

 

AR:   He read it, and then he basically discovered a new play that he fell in love with.  And in a way, that’s… where we’ve all, um, you know, that’s the point at which we came to it from.

 

CR:   When you say he discovered a new play you mean –

 

AR:   To himself.

 

CR:   To himself, yeah.  In a new… in other words, was in fact a new play because he had never read it before or a new play in context of everything else that had been done with Private Lives?

 

AR:  That too, because I think in as much as I know what people have written about this production… they called it a revelatory, because… we, we take the play very much at face value.  There is no kind of, um, holding up of too many cocktail glasses and brittle… um, speech rhythms.  It’s taken at its face value and then you discover that this is a writer of great wisdom and compassion and melancholy.  Um, so –

 

CR:   And --  and wit.

 

AR:   Unbelievable wit.  But, interestingly enough and this is why Howard’s such a good director, the more that… the more serious Lindsay and I were in rehearsals, the more he laughed.  And so, that became the identity of the production.

 

CR:   Yeah.  Help me understand why it’s so different from other productions or which, what is revealing about this interpretation.

 

AR:   Well I hope that in this production you care about Amanda and Elyot.  It’s… one of the problems you have with the play is that these people do absolutely nothing for a living so it’s hard to sympathize… (laughs)

 

CR:   (Laughs) That’s right.

 

AR:   …with their dilemmas.  I hope that what we found are their vulnerable spots and so you actually care about them a bit more this time.

 

CR:   And what’s his vulnerable spot?

 

AR:   Well, as she says, that uh, she always um, knows what he’s thinking and so she’s always three steps ahead of him and that’s incredibly frustrating and… and uh, it’s a joy, as a grown man to play another grown man who’s actually about eleven years old.

 

CR:   Yeah.

 

AR:   So you’re playing a little boy.

 

CR:   But… why is that a joy?

 

AR:   It’s very releasing.

 

CR:   (Smiles)  Yeah, ‘cause you can be the… so you can find the child in yourself in order to play the child in him.

 

AR:   Yeah, and to discover that the child in yourself has never really gone away and is only sitting there waiting to be relocated.

 

CR:   Maybe one of the worst things about maturation is that we kill the child within us so much.

 

AR:   Yes… (nods)

 

CR:   In terms of hope, in terms of… in terms of everything, in terms of optimism, in terms of… I mean, life wears too many people down.

 

AR:   I think that’s true and people, um, you know, there’s a lot of pressure to have some kind of public image in whatever your job is, and I think that’s one of the great things about being an actor, is that it’s at your peril do you lose touch with the child in you.

 

CR:   (Pauses)  You have to almost have to be in touch with everything that’s part of you to be a great actor, don’t you?  I mean, that’s part of the genius of the best is that they are in touch with all of their feelings, emotions, experiences…

 

AR:   (Nods)  Everything’s got to be available to you, yeah hopefully, physically head to foot, every emotion, and things that you don’t even know about, and very much your innocence.

 

CR:   Now is that a learned thing, or is that somehow intuitive and… there?

 

AR:   I think it’s both.  It’s like, it’s learned in the sense that I’m a great believer in training for actors and so, um, you know when you go to drama school if you’re fortunate enough to have great teachers and I was… there’s a painful process where they take you apart before putting you back together again and I was very nervous about training because I thought, oh it’s just a sausage factory and they’ll turn me out like everybody else, but that’s not it, they… they actually, um… (pauses, thinking) …the acquisition of something called technique is really, um, something that’s there to serve your imagination, and, and to get rid of your bad habits which get in the way of making your own unique, imaginative response to a text, um, connect to an audience.

 

CR:   I find this fascinating, and I know that some will say that to talk about process is boring and understanding craft is boring, too – not for me.  Two things about it – number one, is that I always thought it would be great for most of us who love… theater, film, performance… to have some understanding, more understanding than we do, of the actor’s craft, you know, in terms of what it means and how a difficult thing you can appreciate it more.  Like most things, the more you appreciate them the more you enjoy them, I think.  On the other hand, I don’t know whether you want to place yourself there… do you have any thoughts on that – whether you want to place yourself, you know, within the actor’s skin in terms of technique, and you’re just simply better off letting it wash over you.

 

AR:   (Pauses, tongue in cheek briefly, thinking)  Um, it’s very difficult for me as an actor to go to the theater and let go –

 

CR:   Yeah. (Smiles)

 

AR:   -- as a member of an audience, because I, I know what’s happening, or, (eyebrows arching up) often, not happening.  (huge smile and laugh)

 

CR:   (Laughs)  For the lesser of them…

 

AR:   Yeah, so um… in many ways what I’m interested in is the innocence of the response and the handing over… you know I think, what… actors are and should be the servants of the writer.  You know, we are a channel, and our job is to be the most efficient channel between a piece of writing and an audience.  So that there is this thing called a shared experience, and… (gestures with hands) there’s the actors, there’s the audience, and the play is in the middle, and/or the story, and it’s about telling a story.  And what’s the joy of this production of Private Lives is feeling the audience starting out the beginning of the evening as, yeah here we are on Broadway, and the laughter is sort of sophisticated in its tone and, um, appreciative of Noël Coward; as the evening goes on it becomes more animal.  You can feel the laughter coming from –

 

CR:   More about instinct?

 

AR:   -- Yeah, and about… men and women, and you can feel the laughter being connected to (gestures with right elbow making three sideways digs) elbows being dug into the ribs of the person next to them.

 

CR:   (Laughs)  As a reflection of whatever their experience is.

 

AR:   Exactly.

 

CR:   Personal experience.  Take a look at this, this is, uh… am I saying that right – Elyot?

 

AR:   Mm hmm.  (Nods)

 

CR:   Okay, and Amanda, played by Lindsay Duncan, it’s where they reunite.  Here it is.

 

(One minute, fifteen second clip from PL: balcony scene.  Elyot lights a cigarette.)

 

                    Amanda:  Give me one, for God’s sake.  I’m in such a rage.

 

                    Elyot:   So am I.

 

                    A:   What are we to do?

 

                    E:   I don’t know.

 

                    A:   Whose yacht is that?

 

                    E:   The Duke of Westminster’s, I expect.  It always is.

 

                    A:   I wish I were on it.

 

                    E:   I wish you were too.

 

                    A:   There’s no need to be nasty.

 

                    E:   Yes there is every need.  I’ve never in my life felt a greater urge to be

                    nasty.

 

                    (And so on.)

 

CR:   Lindsay makes a difference, you just said she’s good, you said she’s wonderful, I said does she make a difference for you, I mean, if you’re there, and there’s someone who’s…

 

AR:   Well, this play is about two duets, I mean, there are four major characters.  Uh, there’s no Elyot without an Amanda, there’s no Amanda without an Elyot, it’s like two halves of one coin.

 

CR:   Yeah, but I would assume that, back to what you said about technique, that timing is everything.

 

AR:   But also living inside… you know you, it’s, uh, these are very, very complicated sentences – you have to breathe them properly, but you’ve also got to believe what you’re saying, and you have to pick up on the rhythms of your fellow actor.  And these are two people who can’t live together but they can’t live without each other, so you’ve got to feel this, um, umbilical cord all the time.

 

CR:   You said something about the notion of you – the first responsibility of the actor is to give, you know is to take the actor’s – the writer’s – words, and do something with them, ennoble them…

 

AR:   Trust them.

 

CR:   Trust them.  (AR smiles and both laugh.)  Trust…  See, writers must love you when you say that – trust them.

 

AR:   Yeah, but the great writing tells you what to do.  And also, great writing, frequently, uh, doesn’t know what its possibilities are.  When Lindsay and I did one play together before, twelve years ago, which was Les Liaisons Dangereuses – we did it here in New York as well – and one of the, um, run-throughs of it in London after we’d been playing it in Stratford for a while, we had a – it was a break and then we put it on again – and uh, so we had a run-through and Christopher Hampton, the author, was there and at the end of it, Howard Davies, who also directed that, gave some notes and then he said to Christopher, um, “Would you like to say anything, Christopher?”  And Christopher said, “Well I’d just like to say how moved I am because I had no idea I’d written half of that.”

 

CR:   Wow.  (Laughs)

 

AR:   (Eyebrows arch up and mouth opens slightly in surprise.)  No, he said, well, it’s… we’re only saying what we see on the page, and the same is true with this, you know, people are saying, well we didn’t know that there was this depth in the play.  We’re not making it up – it’s there if you look for it.

 

CR:   Yeah.  The movies – and all that business of Die Hard, and all that.  My guess is it’s made your life richer in more ways than one.

 

AR:   Financially, you mean? (Smiles)

 

CR:   Yeah, of course financially, yeah.  Yeah, but it also gave a certain interesting dimension to you, I mean, you were already recognized as a very good actor, you know, and here they come to you for that reason and others, whatever the moviemaker’s and director’s, uh, mandate was or imperaty (sic) was, but it probably added dimension – it has people see you in, in a sort of different and more…  (gestures with hands as if turning something over)

 

AR:   I think, well yes, I mean, obviously, because there’s a worldwide audience…

 

CR:   Yeah.

 

AR:   Um, but um, it also makes a difference in terms of your work on stage.  It’s taught me… I think, I think I’m better at stage work because of film work.

 

CR:   How?  How do you think that is?  How do you –

 

AR:   Because you learn to trust, uh, your listening faculties.  You know it’s, when a camera is put onto the face of somebody who’s truly listening, I think it’s very interesting.

 

CR:   The face is?

 

AR:   Yeah.

 

CR:   Yeah.  And that happens in film because of the fact that that’s the nature of the medium.

 

AR:   Well you’ll cut to somebody because you need their reaction and uh, you need to see them receiving some information.  And so I learned that and uh, and about stillness and… and truthfulness.

 

CR:   Truthfulness?  Meaning that the face can’t lie, or something more?

 

AR:   Yeah.  Uh, um… I think, well, it’s in close-up, that’s the other thing – you know, on stage it’s like you’re always in a wide shot.  (Big smile and laughs)

 

CR:   (Smiles)  Exactly, I was thinking that, yeah.  And so you don’t have to worry about response shot, you know, because people look at the whole thing.

 

AR:   Well, and so, and anyway what I’ve discovered having done a few years of film is, there are a few sequences in this play that I’m doing now where almost nothing seems to be happening and in, there is one sequence in the play where there is actually two minutes of complete silence because they have this… game, where um, if they’re rowing which they do rather a lot, one of them calls out this word “Sollocks” and it means that they now have to have two minutes of silence, and that actually takes place on stage.  There are two minutes when nobody says a thing  (laughs slightly)  and um… you’ve got no option but to play it for real and to hold fourteen hundred people’s attention with silence…

 

CR:   Is not easy.

 

AR:   It’s not easy, but it, but film work gives you a little bit of um, courage to do that.

 

CR:   Why do you think they wanted you?  Other than good… you know, other than you were good at your craft?

 

AR:   On film?

 

CR:   Yeah.  Did you have a certain look?

 

AR:   Um, I think I was cheap.  (CR laughs, and AR laughs)

 

CR:   You see, if you’re good and cheap, that’s a great bonanza for them.

 

AR:   Uh yeah, and I was English, and um… and I was, I had been playing in Les Liaisons Dangereuses and I think it had a kind of quality that they needed for the film.

 

CR:   And how, are you happy with all those experiences?  Most of them?

 

AR:   Well when I did Die Hard of course I had never ever made a film before so, um, I was a complete innocent.  And so I just took my ragbag of ideas…  (smiles)

 

CR:   (Laughing)  Yeah, put it on film.

 

AR:   Put it on film, and, um, John McTiernan, God bless him, um, tolerated me saying things, taking my process to the film set.  (Speaking as if talking to the director):  “Yes but what does this person think and what, what kind of, you know, what did he have for breakfast, and what is his background…”

 

CR:   (Laughing)  You were saying all of those things?

 

AR:   I’m saying all these things.  (Huge smile)

 

CR:   And he said –

 

AR:   Like he cares,  (CR is cracking up during this exchange)  you know, he’s just trying to get the shot… but actually –

 

CR:   (Laughing)  …saying, we may care about Bruce, but we don’t care about you in this case…

 

AR:   (Smiling)  But it was about a (unintelligible) –

 

CR:  Yeah.  Ah.

 

AR:   -- because between us, you know, we made it much more interesting.

 

CR:   Between you and Bruce, or you and the director?

 

AR:   Between all of us, yeah.  Because you have to find uh, again, the other side of the coin, and I thought it was important that there was a proper relationship between my character and Bruce’s and uh, even though it was only over these walkie-talkies, and that there was some mutual respect, so that, there were things to delve into.

 

CR:   Yeah, that’s always necessary, that sort of sense of respect, because you want a villain that… that has credibility.

 

AR:   Mm.

 

CR:   Roll tape – here it is.  Die Hard.

 

(Clip from Die Hard – about one minute, fifty seconds of scene with Hans Gruber and John McClane near elevator, while Gruber is pretending to be “Bill Clay”.  Ends with the line:  “Put down the gun… and give me  my detonators.”

 

AR:   Subtle stuff.  (Mildly sarcastic but smiles broadly and laughs) 

 

CR:   Subtle stuff.  But you – you never watch yourself, you said.

 

AR:   No, no, it’s torture to me.  (Clears throat slightly)

 

CR:   Why is it torture?

 

AR:   Because all you can see is what you got wrong.

 

CR:   Ah, exactly.

 

AR:   You don’t see anything that’s any good.

 

CR:   Oh you must have seen something good.  You never see anything good?

 

AR:   Not really, you just –

 

CR:   You see all the things you could improve on.

 

AR:   (As if talking to himself, slightly annoyed)  “That wasn’t what I was trying to do.”  (Smiles)

 

CR:   And stage, uh, obviously you can’t see yourself, but, do you get more satisfaction from it?  Or less?  Or different?

 

AR:   There’s a – the trouble is, theater, is that, you know I, I can only speak for myself, is that there’s this huge fear factor that you have to deal with.  At least on film, if you screw up, you know, there’s another take.  But…  (shakes head )  and it doesn’t go away, the fear thing.

 

CR:   I read that you said that – that somehow still today, with all that you have done – the fear factor is there, as you begin.  Does it go away during the run of a… piece?

 

AR:   On certain nights, if you can, you know, if you can get it to push down into the right place.  I mean it’s something that I guess is connected to adrenaline and focus and energy and all of those things, but – it’s a useless thing.  It’s not, it’s not really very positive and it’s just like a little gremlin that sits on your shoulder and tries to make you fail.  (AR smiles as CR starts to laugh)  …Often succeeds.  (softer)

 

CR:   Really?

 

AR:   It’s negative, it doesn’t do any good.  No, I am seriously thinking of trying to find some kind of hypnosis that’ll get rid of it, because it’s useless.

 

CR:   Seriously trying to find hypnosis to get over the fear of being on stage…

 

AR:   (Nods)  Yeah.  (softly)

 

CR:   …coming from one of our better… best… actors.

 

AR:   Well, I’m not alone, you know, it’s a, it’s a common problem.

 

CR:   Does it – do you think it is a common problem simply because people who go into acting and feel passionate about it somehow are a breed that is likely to be fearful?

 

AR:   I don’t know, I think it’s an individual thing.  Olivier had, um, years of terrible stage fright.

 

CR:   It’s, we’re not, we’re talking about something much more than simply forgetting your lines, aren’t we?

 

AR:   It’s a lot about that – fear of that.  (CR starts laughing)  You know, just, just, no, I mean you know, but that’s a terrible thing to have happen.

 

CR:   (Still laughing)  Oh, I would think.  I would think.  I mean that would scare me to death.

 

AR:   But um, but then it becomes a self-generating problem, because unless you can get your concentration into the right place, then this little gremlin goes up into your head  (gestures with right hand)  and while you’re speaking it’s saying:  “You know this line, but there’s a line coming up in four lines time that you don’t know.”  (CR laughs)  And then your brain is going forward and backwards  (gestures with right index finger making forward and reverse winding motions toward the side of his head)  and trying to speak at the same time.  It’s a nightmare.

 

CR:   And be motivated and all that stuff.  And where, and think about position and where I’m going to be and when do I (live?) and where do I move and, and what I am supposed to get from her and… more.

 

AR:   Exactly.  I mean, you must have it because you’re – yes, we’re having a conversation; on some level, I assume you’re listening to what I’m saying and responding, well, I can see you are –

 

CR:   Well isn’t that clear to you?  I mean… (shrugs as if it’s obvious)

 

AR:   Of course you are.  But there’s also some bit of you that’s thinking (gestures towards his head again)  “And next…” or “Did I cover this?”

 

CR:   Some cases – not with you.  Now this is a list of questions right here.  (Picks up papers on desk in front of him)  I haven’t, I haven’t asked a single one.

 

AR:   Good.  (Laughs slightly)

 

CR:   You know?  Not one.  (Puts papers aside, off desk)  Simply because you’re searching for something more important than that at this table, which is something like what I think we have here.  I mean, you know I had no idea, I didn’t know you, hadn’t met you, but any idea, and hadn’t even seen the play yet and want to, very much, ‘cause I, for all the reasons.  Uh, but wanted to.  But what you’re looking for, and I think you’re looking for this every night too – you’re just looking to make it as authentic as you can.

 

AR:   (Nods)  That’s all.

 

CR:   Period.

 

AR:   I want to turn a key in the hearts and minds of… (makes expansive gesture with hands)  somebody out there.

 

CR:   Exactly.  Me too.  That’s exactly right.  And you know, I mean it’s easier for me than it is for you, simply because I got a lot to work with – your whole life and your career and all that other stuff, that I can sort of call up.

 

AR:   It’s not enough to get up there and just show off, you know, that’s kind of pointless – you do that as a child at birthday parties, you know.  We have a job to do, and I think theater still has an important job to fulfill.

 

CR:   I want to talk about Winter Guest where you directed it, but first Sense and Sensibilities (sic) – I mean how, that’s… what?  What does that say, what about that, what would we say about that – for you, as a… experience?

 

AR:   It was a very, very happy experience.  Um, Emma Thompson had written a really brilliant adaptation.  It’s so difficult to adapt a book like that --  Jane Austen – to the screen, which is –

 

CR:   (Surprised)  Emma Thompson wrote the adaptation?

 

AR:   Mm hmm.  And when –

 

CR:   The Emma Thompson we know as an actress?

 

AR:  Absolutely.  And she’s in Sense and Sensibility.

 

CR:   Yeah, I know.

 

AR:   She wrote the script, the screenplay, and she won an Oscar for that.

 

CR:   Ah.

 

AR:   So, uh…

 

CR:   For her screenplay?

 

AR:   Uh huh.  Yeah.  Um, and she did a brilliant, brilliant job of it.  And then there was an inspired choice of director, which was Ang Lee –

 

CR:   Yeah.

 

AR:   -- to come and, you know, this Hong Kong based, uh, born, director to come and uh… or is he Taiwan?  Anyway, whichever…

 

CR:   Yeah.  Asian.

 

AR:   Well I don’t wish to insult him but anyway, he’s a brilliant director, but to have him come and direct this kind of quintessentially English comedy of manners… but it was a brilliant choice because of course he understands all of that from his own culture.  So on those levels it was an extraordinary experience and, and the film was peopled by a lot of actors who knew each other from the theater.  So there was a sense of process – Ang had lots of rehearsals, we had to write essays about our characters, write letters about our characters, have movement classes, all of that – all of which helped enormously.  And I was playing somebody who was… it was an enormous challenge because he was – he is – one hundred and ten per cent a good person, and to try to make somebody who’s so thoroughly good and honorable interesting…  (laughs)  was the challenge.

 

CR:   Roll tape.  Here it is.

 

(Ninety-second clip from S & S: in Mrs. Jennings’s drawing room, Colonel Brandon asks Elinor whether things are finally resolved between Marianne and Willoughby. After saying that he hopes Willoughby will endeavor to deserve her, he says “Forgive me. Forgive me” and leaves.)

 

(Reaction shot on AR: he smiles as if in awkward embarrassment and shrugs slightly.)

 

CR:   (Laughs)  You first.

 

AR:   Oh.  (Laughs)  I don’t know, I just watch it and go  (lowering his head as if talking to himself)  “Wrong, wrong, wrong”.  (Laughs)                   

 

CR:   Oh, did you really?  What was wrong about that?

 

AR:   (Clears his throat and pauses.)  (Softly) Oh I don’t know.  You just wish you could do it again.

 

CR:   You – nothing was wrong with that.  Now come on.  It might have been different, but not wrong.

 

AR:   (Thinks for a moment.)  Could have been a little quicker… cleaner… simpler.

 

(AR smiles, CR laughs.)

 

CR:   Uh, The Winter Guest – you directed this.

 

AR:   Mm hmm.

 

CR:   Something you enjoyed?

 

AR:   I did, yes, I mean the prospect was pretty terrifying but then, I suppose experience tells you and, it proved to be the case that… the wonderful thing about film is that you’re surrounded by experts, ‘cause if they don’t do their job well they’d never make it, so you’ve got this unbelievable bank of support behind you and in a way, a lot of the work has been done in pre-production.

 

CR:   In terms of cinematographers and everybody.

 

AR:   Once you actually hit the first day of shooting, you just watch…  (looks slightly bemused and pleased)  and uh, everybody else is kind of doing it for you, in a sense.

 

CR:   (Laughs)  And then you say things like: “Louder.  Slower.  Simpler.”

 

AR:   Well those are good words to say, sometimes…  (CR laughs louder and AR breaks into a huge smile)  …sometimes that’s all the direction –

 

CR:   All the things you were saying to yourself about that performance.  Just simple words.

 

AR:   Yeah.  Ang Lee used to say some extraordin – but that was because he, his English wasn’t so good, and he used to say…  he said to me once, he said uh, “Alan, be more subtle.  Do more.”

 

(Both pause, and CR starts to laugh.)

 

AR:   Which leaves you kind of…  (holds left hand to his head as if pondering that)  …staring after him.

 

CR:   Exactly.  It’s what – it’s, Ang, it’s one or the other.

         Alright, here’s a scene from The Winter Guest.  Take a look.  Emma Thompson and her real-life mother, Phyllidia Law.

 

AR:   Phyllida.

 

CR:   Phyllida.

 

(Two-minute clip from TWG:  Elspeth and Frances argue about Frances’s haircut, photos, etc.  Ends with “When are you ever quiet?”)

 

CR:   Um, also Harry Potter which was a huge success – you played Professor Snape in that.

 

AR:   Yeah.

 

CR:   What’s next after this?  This runs, uh, Private Lives is playing at the Richard Rodgers Theater through September.  Do you know where you’re going after –

 

AR:   September 8^th, I think.

 

CR:   Where are you going after September 8^th?  Where will you be?

 

AR:   Uh, possibly in a rest home…

 

(CR laughs, AR smiles)

 

AR:   …but um…  (clears throat)

 

CR:   Where would you like to be?

 

AR:   There are various things I have to organize around the fact that I will almost definitely be shooting another Harry Potter sometime between September and the following February.

 

CR:   You’ll be shooting another Harry Potter for the rest of your life.  (laughs)

 

AR:   Uh, fortunately or unfortunately – no.  There will only ever be seven of these books.

 

CR:   Oh is that right?

 

AR:   Yeah, because it’s uh, she’s, Joanne Rowling’s already said that – you know, it’s one a year from the time – from him being eleven to eighteen, so it’s just his school time.

 

CR:   Yeah.

 

AR:   So when Harry gets to be eighteen and leaves school, that’s it.  And she’s already written the last paragraph of the last book and it’s locked away in a safe somewhere.

 

CR:   Do you know her?

 

AR:   Yeah.

 

CR:   Is she interesting? 

 

AR:   She’s a terrifically interesting woman, yeah.  Well, how could you not be when you, uh, um, were a single parent with no money coming in, trying to feed your kids and writing these books in coffee bars in Glasgow, in exercise books by hand, with the kids in the stroller… and not quite knowing how to feed them?

 

CR:   Yeah.  It’s been a great pleasure to have you here.

 

AR:   (Nods)  Pleasure to be here.  (Smiles)

 

CR:   Alan Rickman – Private Lives, through September at the Richard Rodgers Theater.

 

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Transcribed by Christine K. (USA)