When you were first approached about the role, it’s been said you were reluctant to take it on until you had a conversation with JK Rowling, and she said something to you that turned it for you? Can you tell us what that was?
Alan Rickman: I don’t know that I’d ever been reluctant. It’s just that you have to take small steps towards what this thing was that you were going to be part of. Certainly, I did say I needed to talk to her before I could get a handle on how to play it, and we did have a phone conversation. She certainly didn’t tell me what the end of the story was going to be in any way at all, so I was having to buy the books along with everybody else to find out, ‘And now what?’ No, she gave me one little piece of information, which I always said I would never share with anybody and never have, and never will. It wasn’t a plot point, or crucial in any tangible way, but it was crucial to me as a piece of information that made me travel down that road rather than that one or that one or that one.
Did you speak with her over the years and over the course of making the films about Snape’s journey?
AR: No, not at all. I mean, I’ve seen her over the years on odd occasions, odd events, and she just has the most marvelous -certainly, from our point of view as actors- hands-off approach to it. She may have visited the set, but I’ve never seen her there. And I think that’s very smart of her. She’s obviously had some control over the scripts or she’s been sent final drafts and made her comments, but I’ve never been aware of any kind of controlling presence. She’s let it go.
Because the books were still being published as you were making the films and you were getting new information as each new book came out about where Snape would go, was there anything that deepened your understanding of the character or surprised you as you went along?
AR: I guess it doesn’t really work like that because you just keep thinking, ‘And now what?’ And ‘Okay, now he’s doing this.’ He receives such a solitary path from the beginning to the end and you’re aware that until it all works its way through to a conclusion, you’re never quite sure what the agendas are, so there’s as big a question mark over my head as I’m reading it and playing it as there is over everybody else’s, until it’s resolved. You know that the stakes are always very high for him, whatever the outcome proves to be.
What has it been like playing an emotionally complex, ambiguous character over these years? Has it been satisfying? Daunting? Both?
AR: Well, it’s always rewarding to play people who are complicated because that tests your acting machinery and places you right inside a great piece of storytelling because great storytelling needs ambiguous characters. It needs people where the audience and the readers don’t quite know what they’re about. So, there’s a certain ‘who-done-it’ quality or ‘who-thunk-it’ or ‘who-done-what-to-him.’ And it helps you to be very concentrated. I respond to what there is on the page and what there was on the page was news to me every time we got to a new script.
How’s it been to work with a young cast led by Dan, Rupert, Emma, who have been growing up as their characters have? Do you think that you’ve influenced their growth as actors and have they ever influenced you?
AR: You can’t help but be influenced by such kind of, well, youth and vulnerability and guts and hard work – all of which all three of them have had in spades, I think, all the way from the beginning. It’s all very well for me to talk about my seven weeks a year on each film. They’re working pretty much every day. So, when you say a 10-year commitment for them, it really has been 10 years. The number of days they’ve had off would be far less than the number of days they’ve been on. And learning on the job about what does film acting mean, and what does it mean to talk to somebody else and sound like you mean it, and listen, and know that listening is as important as talking on film. I think the whole enterprise has been phenomenally lucky to have had those three. And to watch them grow, whether one could notice it or not, it’s really with a sort of shock horror that you look now at the first film and you realize how tiny they were.
And just their curiosity about this brand new world that was opened up to them? And kind of the sponges that they became to learn it all?
AR: Yeah, but if we’re just talking about Dan, Rupert, and Emma, they never lost who they were as individuals. They’re very different from each other. That was always evident and has remained so. And as I’m sure that they would say, they lead pretty separate lives, but they have such a strong understanding of where they’ve been together that, in a way, it’s a secret that they’ll hold to themselves forever. It’s not something that I would comment on. I think it’s something very private.
You have some terrific scenes with Ralph Fiennes in this last film. Can you talk about working with Ralph?
AR: Ralph is a very good friend of mine, and, of course, somebody I respect hugely as an actor, not just on film but the way he also keeps going back to the stage and testing himself in huge and difficult roles. He never takes the easy path. It’s just great to play a scene with somebody who has that much courage in his work, and rigor, and although I know him as a good friend, you are also just working with a fellow actor, so there is no quarter given. It’s absolutely coming out of the red corner and the blue corner ready to spar, but in the best way.
And it was a good match?
AR: We enjoyed it, yeah.
What do you think of the legacy of these eight films, or the film series’ place in the history of cinema? It has had a huge impact on British cinema, British filmmaking, but in general, what do you think the legacy will be?
AR: Well, I hope ultimately its legacy is to make people cherish the notion of telling a story and not trying to do it by committee; that it is possible to trust a true storyteller’s imagination and then serve it as honorably as possible, and that you might just wind up with something that’s entertaining on the one hand, makes a load of money on the other, and gives enormous silent and not so silent pleasure to children and grownups. It’s just a validation of something that we need. It’s a human need to be told stories, and I don’t think it can be done by committee. I think it has to be one person’s imagination. So, here’s to Jo Rowling and all who may sail in her.
According to an article posted in The Guardian, Warner Bros. has made a lot of efforts to have Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 receive Oscar award nominations from the “US-based” Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences before the final Oscar ballots close on January 13, 2012. Some of those efforts have been special trailers, advertising campaigns and a “for your consideration” site. Warner Bros. would particularly like to see Alan Rickman receive a Best Actor In A Supporting Role nomination for his portrayal of “Professor Severus Snape” in the last Harry Potter film. 
Alan Rickman, who’s portrays Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films, and whose scenes he had in the last film – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – are calling for an Oscar nomination, recently spoke with RTE about his part in the films. In the interview, he talks about how he was approached for the role and that he felt he needed to speak with JK Rowling prior to accepting the part. She did give him a bit of information when he spoke with her, but he still won’t let anyone know what she told him. He admits, however, he still was not quite sure where Snape was headed in the story line. He also talks about what it was like to work with Dan Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Ralph Fiennes.
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Alan Rickman, who portrays Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films, recently spoke with the 
The Telegraph recently did an interview with Harry Potter film production designer Stuart Craig about his experiences with filming the movies. The article includes the first drawing J.K. Rowling did of the Hogwarts’ grounds, props, and more. When asked if he’s ever cried from one of the scenes, he admitted to having recently cried during the Snape death scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Warner Bros have released eight new Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 TV spot videos on their official 
