“Harry Potter”: Alan Rickman’s diaries reveal his conversations with JK Rowling and how cancer has affected him

On October 4th, ‘Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman Diaries’ arrives in bookstores, a book composed of extracts from the 26 personal diaries that Alan Rickman has written over the course of his life, some of which accompanied by illustrations made by the same actor of ‘Jungla de cristal’. This very personal review of his daily life begins in the 1990s and ends near his death in early 2016. Rickman died of prostate cancer which he kept private, but thanks to his journals we can get an idea of ​​how the ‘impressed in his life and his work, as being diagnosed shortly before the filming of’ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ‘began, he had half the saga ahead of him.

The Guardian has published an excerpt from those diaries, highlighting their conversational yet solemn, and sometimes very personal, style. Alan Rickman has virtually no opinion of his time in the Warner Bros. franchise and its co-stars, not even children.. He says it one day during the filming of “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”. “Emma’s (Watson) diction sometimes sounds Albanian”and Daniel Radcliffe claims to find him “Serious and focused, but with a sense of fun. I still don’t think he’s really an actor, but he will definitely direct / produce. And she has a lot of quiet and dignified support from her parents. Nothing is forced.

He mentions the protagonist of the saga on more than one occasion and shows that he is very fond of him as they work more and more together. On January 5, 2006, she talks about her transfer to the hospital for the removal of the prostate. “It looks like a movie set, nothing feels real”. After the operation, he remembers that the doctors asked him how he fell at the end of “Jungla de cristal”. On January 30, he agreed to continue with “Harry Potter” despite his health: “Finally yes to HP5. The feeling is neither up nor down. The reason that wins is the one that says, ‘Go all the way. It’s your story.'”. She says to wear Snape’s suit “reduces it and binds it”. Not considered a good company on set: “I’ve never been so uncommunicative with a crew while filming. Fortunately, Dan plays that role with ease and charm. And youth.”. In December 2008 she ate with Radcliffe after filming the sixth episode and takes stock: “One minute he was 12 and now he’s 19. When did that happen? And he’s sensitive, expressive and smart. And he has a three-bedroom apartment in New York.”.

“Snape loved Lily”

These excerpts also review the famous conversations between him and JK Rowling to understand, before anyone else, what Severus Snape’s journey would have been during the saga: “‘There are things that only you and Snape know … I need to know …’. ‘You are right – he replies – call me tomorrow, no one else knows these things’. (…) I spoke again with Joanne Rowling and Nerves allows me to peek into Snape’s past. Talking to her is talking to someone who lives these stories, she doesn’t compensate them. She’s a channel, muttering, “Well, when he was young, this and that happened, ‘never’ wanted … ‘”. On July 27, 2007, after the publication of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, he writes: “I just finished reading the latest “Harry Potter” book. Snape dies heroically. Potter describes him to his children as one of the bravest men he has ever met and calls him his son Albus Severus. It was an absolute rite of passage. A little information from Jo Rowling seven years ago – that Snape loved Lily – gave me enough to hold on to.”.

It also examines his final scenes, his squabbles with producer David Heyman and director David Yates over some details of his character’s death, Michael Gambon’s (Dumbledore) fear of forgetting his lines and last day on set. . : “A little hard to believe. I think Daniel is also shocked by the ending. There were cameras everywhere (for the documentary). ‘How do you feel?’ They tell you before you have tried it, before that feeling has a name. “It’s private,” I manage to say, “and I won’t share it with that” as I point to the target. There’s something inside those cans, and it’s something finished. Thanks, Jo”. It takes us to the premiere of the latest film in Trafalgar Square, London, and his thoughts on it: “I found it hard to watch, they had to switch systems halfway to tell Snape’s story and the camera loses focus. But the audience was still very happy.”.

In the newspapers he doesn’t just talk about his career, how much he appreciates Alfonso Cuarón and how “stubborn” David Yates, for example, seemed to him. He also talks about politics, tells about the most intimate moments of his marriage and reviews some meetings with other exponents of the sector and famous people, such as Meryl Streep, “which turns out to be funny and a lot of gossip”. And he admits that in the 2011 Wimbledon match between Rafa Nadal and Novac Dkojovic “the wrong man won – all triumph and ego”.