Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman Diaries

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As I got out of the car [in Dublin], there is Julia Roberts, her waist is the most encirclable. Upstairs to find Liam [Neeson] & Aidan [Quinn]. Neil Jordan arrives a few minutes later – we all sit down and talk through the de Valera scenes. Neil is his usual jitterbugging self – like a grasshopper nipping from topic to topic.

Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman Diaries review – great actor

With Maggie Smith, Miriam Margolyes and Richard Harris in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Photograph: Warner Bros/Sportsphoto/Allstar And then the morning quietness which means the press is not good. Eventually I hear the tentative messages and get the picture. He was surrounded by people who loved him and up until 13 January was still in control of everything that was going on around him. But he wasn’t there after that, and he died at 9.15 in the morning of 14 January 2016. I was there. He wasn’t in pain. He just went. Dublin. 8pm Irish premiere [of An Awfully Big Adventure]. Feel like an elder statesman reading the letter from Mike [Newell].The snapshots would be of milling about, people looking suddenly older, some in hats and palaver, men in red uniforms holding pikestaffs (the ones in glasses letting the side down). A feeling of having to accept our place in the Establishment, or not. Vivienne Westwood was there, for heaven’s sake. The Queen in yellow, laughing at Richard Wilson. But mostly – looking up to the gallery at the T-shirted students looking down – the sense of 30 years. And a shy pride at being there once. To Trafalgar Square – which takes an hour. Once there, red carpets everywhere. A screen, a platform, an interviewer and thousands screaming and singing, “Snape, Snape, Severus Snape … ” The carpet snakes into Leicester Square for the film at 8pm. Sheekey’s. In a day of memorable moments … it was capped by having Bill Clinton come over to our table to say hello. I say “Mr President” to remind myself that he was that, rather than another actor or the maître d’ … I found it unsettling to watch – it has to change horses midstream to tell the Snape story and the camera loses concentration. Audience, however, very happy. To Jon Snow’s house. Michael Foot there. A lonely figure, victim of Parkinson’s, but still caught up in it all.

Truly Madly Deeply (1990) - IMDb Truly Madly Deeply (1990) - IMDb

Like a car crash we get past the interval and on into the second half. My questions are getting larger & more urgent. Where is the music? Where will the story be? Time and again where is the exactness? To meet Liam [Neeson] & Natasha [Richardson] for what turns out to be a wonderful, chatty, friendly lunch – Liam has seen Michael Collins and loves it so – ONWARD. To Lee Grant [American actor]’s apt at 11.45pm – huge room, lots of people (including G Paltrow & Brad Pitt) stand around, hold glass, smile, chat, leave. With Martine McCutcheon, 2002 – ‘One of the best things in Love Actually. Unaffected, truthful and direct.’ Photograph: Dave Benett/Getty ImagesCar to Goldcrest to loop Sense and Sensibility. Good to see Ang. Emma arrives at 2pm. The continuing conundrum. Lovable, affectionate and somehow starring daily in the movie of her life … Kate gives so little of herself – everything as an actor – but there is never a moment where she finds out anything about her fellow actors – or even says bravo or thank you. Strange to witness. Such a deliberately erected wall.

Alan Rickman’s diaries: ‘Ang seems nervous. He probably needs Alan Rickman’s diaries: ‘Ang seems nervous. He probably needs

Different friends came in each day. Sometimes, Alan told me who he wanted to see. Otherwise, they just came. There was often a lot of laughter. Alan was in bed but always a major voice in the proceedings. Thanksgiving party at Sandra & Michael Kamen [American composer]’s. All I wanted was an autograph book – Kate Bush, Bryan Adams, David Bowie, Stevie Winwood. Around the pool and feeling a bit nothing about HP which really disturbs me – or is it because I’m reading Martin Amis’s Experience which charts A Life … The doctors come round and after dealing with catheters and drainage, finally, nervously get to the point – “How did you do the fall at the end of Die Hard?” Sunday am. I am reminded, watching Emma with crew, director, producers, fellow actors, of a young girl arranging her dolls in her pretend classroom.

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Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman|Hardcover Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman|Hardcover

Wimpole Street. Doctor’s laboratory. Blood test and reading many magazines, including Vogue’s info that Emma Watson was given a vintage Rolex “by her producers” … While the years impart structure, a contrapuntal rhythm comes with the life cycle of every fresh project. He embarks each time on a wave of idealism, only to chronicle the crushing impact of reality in the form of colleagues, audiences, the press. “Once again The Telegraph shows its tawdry little fangs,” he mutters, though a Guardian critic enrages him too. He feels it all even more when directing. Somewhere in here, finally, the deal is done for HP 7 parts one and two, and people are all carefully left in possession of genitalia.The trouble with this job is that you can watch yourself & your friends growing older in full colour, close up. Flip a switch to rewind or fast forward.