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Twoofsix.net
Latest update: 17-01-2002 You are visitor number: |
Biography Villain extraordinaire, comedic personality, romantic leading man. Born on February 21, 1946 in London, Rickman attended the Royal College of Art and made his way as a graphic artist in Soho. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1972-1974. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and starred in "Les Liaisons Dangereuses' as Le Vicomte de Valmont as the elegant and heartless seducer. His mother was Welsh and his father was Irish, so he can speak both accents like a native, but is never asked to. 1985Alan Rickman is tall and dark, with a measured, even detached manner. But underneath there is a deep passion and philosophy for his art. The 'talking heads' approach is still too prominent in British theatre, but it certainly does not attract Rickman. As he says, the "stillness" acclaimed in great actors in fact comes from a body so connected to mind and heart that in a way it vibrates. That's really centered acting. Alan also emphasizes a need to share in the creative process, and notes that pressure of time in smaller venues makes directing particularly competitive. As he says, "We need directors who allow themselves to be vulnerable - who are prepared to say "I don't know". Small chance, in the present climate". "Theatre is its own pebble or rock, which is thrown into water. Everything depends on how many ripples are made. If the rock is big enough, it may create a tidal wave. The fundamental question is who throws the rock and why". 1991Actor Alan Rickman brings a shudder of fear to the screen every time he makes his entrance as the - Black Magic - worshipping Sheriff of Nottingham. Already he has established himself with one of the cinema's most memorable bad-guy performances as the gang boss Hans Gruber in the action film 'Die Hard' (1989). In real life, though not thankfully having the edge of evil or nastiness he so readily brings to his roles, he does not suffer fools. He chooses his words carefully and they are ladled out as if he is not really happy talking about himself at all. He learned to ride a horse in 'Quigley down under' (1990) as Elliot Marston and thanks to those riding lessons he's been asked for a part in 'Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves' (riding and holding a sword in the other hand, first he didn't fancy that part at all, until he read the script). He's actually quite a nervous person, Rickman insists. He might better be characterized as regally leonine and very guarded, a man who watches and waits and chooses his word as carefully as he does his roles. He also understands that stillness combined with flashes of droll wit delivered in a mellifluous baritone can create an aura of seduction as undeniable as it is unself-conscious. He is softly-spoke, reflective and perceptive and with an easy humour that confirms the rumour that much of his dialogue in RHPOT was ad-libbed. He always puts himself in black (QDU, RHPOT, TMD) but in 'Close my Eyes' he's quite nice, because it's a love story. His contribution in RHPOT was reportedly edited down to restore some balance to a movie he has taken over anyway. It's not just his voice, you realize - it's his look, his manner. Dry, ironic, honey-coated contemptuousness. Perhaps his long face, aquiline nose, narrow hazel eyes add up to looks which typecast him. He's in danger of the typecasting 'villain', which he wants to change now by playing a 'good guy' too ('January Man' (1989), 'Truly Madly Deeply' (1992) and 'Close my Eyes') (1993). But he likes playing the villain, because it's fun being naughty. But he does not like being typecast. Rickman, smiling, says he harbors no core of evil that might explain his charismatic sinisterness on the screen. His success in imparting such malevolence, he observes, can be traced to matters more mundane. He's such a perfectionist, it can be painful. He keeps you on your toes and you have learned not to be threatened by that. He's very concerned with appearance-what he wears. He plays cunningly with words and moments. His voice has such a mesmeric quality that it is terrible easy to drift off on the delicious musicality of his speech and forget what it is he is actually saying. Alan: "I have a certain pitch to my voice, a certain way of framing my sentences". And there is some truth in that. He speaks slowly, deliberately and almost dreamily, with each phrase fading languorously into a honeyed, dying fall. He sounds intelligent, sometimes sibilantly dangerous, but always ineffably seductive (his secret?) Rickman's stage appearances are consistently acclaimed for their ability to reveal the moral complexities of his characters in an unusually visceral way. His benign characters always betray a bit of the dark side, while his black-hatted characters are played with such cool intelligence and lip-curling irony that their wickedness becomes sinuously appealing. He has great style and a very visual sense of the theatre. He's a very physical actor, which is very unusual for a British actor. He exhibits a powerful physical presence. His hair is blonder than it's been in his film roles, and, unlike the grace he demonstrates on stage, here he seems almost sluggish in his movements, as if he were masking an impatient intelligence with a deceptively leonine demeanor. He fabled attention to costumes - he determined his double-breasted couture look in DH and came up with his oiled Medusa hairstyle in RHPOT - fellow actors say that his attention to visuals has more to 'with his deep concern for the whole production'. He's very generous with advice. Traveling is what he does when he's not acting. And thrills make him happy. Roller coaster rides to be specific. "Everything falls away", according Alan. A treat is theme parks likes Disneyland and Magic Mountain (he has no children of his own, but takes his sisters' children). And he loves to daydream..... He's a dreamer, as a child already because he is very good at staring into space. In the rehearsal room, it's like another person wakes up. His virtues (according to friends): loyalty, sympathy, boundless generosity and practical encouragement. 1992Alan doesn't spill emotions, he is an old pro, he is an actor (a notoriously serious, intense who, nonetheless, happily swans off to Hollywood to be a villain). Alan is something of a mystery. Interviews are strict rarities, televisions appearances are limited to collecting awards and the media are kept at arms length. He made a huge impact in Hollywood, and who could seduce the entire female population of Reading with a mere smile? Rickman is still a worrier. One way to escape it is to feel the sensation of being on stage. He thinks life is built on sensations as much as anything else, acting is about trying to reproduce that sensation and he stole the limelight from Kevin Costner and Bruce Willis...... He's an actor to his fingertips, he always knows his lines. He's good at playing urbane villains. Reluctant film star. Politically correct. Driven by ambition. Self-assured. Occasionally earnest. A person of principles. A man who believes that winning the little battles makes the world a nicer place. A performer without an ego problem. He is forthright but not bullying, handsome, but barely aware of it and ever sensitive to the ideological content of the work that has propelled him into the relatively quiet but comfortable suburbs of stardom. His performances always come with a jolt. To complicated characters he brings the shock of clarity. And to the memorable evil characters in his repertoire he brings astonishment of humanity. Rickman exudes the irony he purveys; it gives him an aura of mystery and danger. He watches over his words, which rumble slowly out of him in a clipped clear voice tinged at once with authority and ennui. He makes no concessions to comfort. "I like getting ambiguous responses from people" he says, enjoying the drama of his feistiness. He thinks on his feet, and he has the ability to convey thought, which makes both audiences and personal acquaintances wait on his words. Tall, with reddish hair graying at the temples, a nose aspiring to aquiline, and an crenulated row of lower teeth that can bite hard on consonants to give postures of flattery and fury their special piquancy, Rickman compels by the fierceness of his contradictory nature. He's a Piscan. He has the ability to be properly sensational. He has a love of rich language and an orotund voice of delivering verbal fun and ferment with equal musical power. He sees himself as 'a quite serious actor who doesn't mind being ridiculously comic', indeed, he takes his characters to the brink of vulgarity. The critics describe him as 'ferociously good'. 1993Indeed, Alan Rickman, generally is worth keeping an eye on. Critics of stage and screen on both sides of the Atlantic have marked him as a talent to be reckoned with. Similar to his acting style, Rickman is, in conversation, of the minimalist school of chat. He has a tendency to pause a beat or two longer than normal before speaking, or before a word or phrase that he wants to emphasize. What he does say is cautiously formed and meticulously enunciated. There are no subclause elaborations, no adjectival adornments. But, according tot friends and colleagues, he doesn't need to say much: He has the knack of making an impact by just entering the room. He has a very strong presence. In fact, it's the quality that stands out most about him. If to describe him, the first word that comes to mind is 'huge': both physically and in terms of his aura. In his flared frock coat, 18th century cravat and long leather boots, the tall figure of Alan Rickman gazed with impassive disdain at the scene around him (Mesmer). The look seemed familiar and redolent of that indelible image he created in "Les Liaisons Dangereuses". His dislike of journalists is so strong, it probably glows in the dark. Poliakroff (director "Close my Eyes") grows lyrical in this praise of Rickman's allure. A lot of women find him very sexually attractive. He has a depth, along with dangerous, mercurial sexuality, and there aren't many actors like that. He's idiosyncratic, but also very sexy. It's an intriguing combination. 1995He did some films: "Sense and Sensibility", starring Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Kate Winslet. They shot the wedding of Colonel Brandon and Marianne first. When Alan showed up in his red uniform, looking really handsome and dashing, the cast was completed (Alan was the last). In "An Awfully Big Adventure" he worked again with Hugh Grant, playing an actor in "Peter Pan" as Captain Hook. "Mesmer " (1994) was shot on location in Vienna and although he likes to changes the script, it didn't work now. He plays a doctor with a strange working method and in 1996 Rasputin was shot, the story of the Tsar and Tsarina in Russia in 1900 (he wore no wig and liked being evil again) and Michael Collins, a political story in Ireland, based on facts, Alan played the president and his opponent became Collins, starring Liam Neeson. He did "The Winter Guest" with Emma Thompson in Almeida Theatre in London. He loves to be on stage.... 1998In 1997 he made his debute as a director with the film "The Winter Guest" starring Emma Thompson and Phyllidia Law (her in real life mother), a film shot on location in Scotland on one winters day. Alan also wrote the lyrics for the soundtrack. I've seen this film in London (while I spent 4 days there) in Odeon Theatre Haymarket. Emma Thompson, who wrote the screenplay for "Sense and Sensibility" created the part of Colonel Brandon just for Alan. So, the casting for TWG was very simple..... I bought the soundtrack and it's lovely, and really a collectors item! This year's (and 1999) projects are 4 films: Judas Kiss, Dark Harbor, Galaxy Quest and Dogma. 2000 Blow Dry and Harry Potter are his latest projects.
Actor
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Director - filmography
Writer - filmography
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