Madly, Deeply, The Alan Rickman Diaries
Apr. 27th, 2025 05:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vickyduckySo when I ordered Tom Felton’s autobiography, Amazon suggested Alan Rickman’s diaries and I thought ‘why not?’
To begin with I found it a bit dull, just a lot of name dropping. But it got better, with more of his feelings about the various projects he was working on. He often was very scathing about directors, particularly those who don’t provide enough direction. Also critics and people who only talk about themselves.
He was very proud of Die Hard, which I was slightly surprised by, and there was obviously some legal wrangling over Die Hard 3.
Regarding Harry Potter, Warner brothers cut corners, the food was terrible, he didn’t get paid enough. He was quite scathing about the child actors, complaining that they didn’t know their lines, especially Emma Watson of whom he said “[her] diction is this side of Albania at times.” Whatever that may mean. A couple of passing mentions later on left me with the impression that he didn’t like Emma at all, but he clearly became very fond and admiring of Dan Radcliffe. Rupert Grint doesn’t get a mention :)
I almost forgot the most extraordinary bit. Apparently, David Yates wanted Voldemort to kill Snape with a spell, not Nagini. And was only persuaded otherwise when it was pointed out that Snape would then die straight away and wouldn’t be able to give Harry the crucial memories.
The end, written by his wife, Rima Horton, dealing with his death from pancreatic cancer was very moving and sad. Strange to think it was 9 years ago.
To begin with I found it a bit dull, just a lot of name dropping. But it got better, with more of his feelings about the various projects he was working on. He often was very scathing about directors, particularly those who don’t provide enough direction. Also critics and people who only talk about themselves.
He was very proud of Die Hard, which I was slightly surprised by, and there was obviously some legal wrangling over Die Hard 3.
Regarding Harry Potter, Warner brothers cut corners, the food was terrible, he didn’t get paid enough. He was quite scathing about the child actors, complaining that they didn’t know their lines, especially Emma Watson of whom he said “[her] diction is this side of Albania at times.” Whatever that may mean. A couple of passing mentions later on left me with the impression that he didn’t like Emma at all, but he clearly became very fond and admiring of Dan Radcliffe. Rupert Grint doesn’t get a mention :)
I almost forgot the most extraordinary bit. Apparently, David Yates wanted Voldemort to kill Snape with a spell, not Nagini. And was only persuaded otherwise when it was pointed out that Snape would then die straight away and wouldn’t be able to give Harry the crucial memories.
The end, written by his wife, Rima Horton, dealing with his death from pancreatic cancer was very moving and sad. Strange to think it was 9 years ago.
