When Harry Potter’s Professor Snape Alan Rickman Almost Quit The Series But JK Rowling’s ‘A Tiny Piece Of’ Intel About His Role Changed His Mind, “It Helped Me Think…”
An interesting piece of trivia not many may know about is that Alan Rickman almost put up his robe on playing Professor Snape.
Harry Potter’s ‘Snape’ Alan Rickman Received Confidential Intel About His Character From JK Rowling, Once Said, “… She Only Gave Me A Tiny Piece Of Information Which…” ( Photo Credit – Facebook; IMDb )
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The Harry Potter films – starring Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley and Emma Watson as Hermione Granger- made up most of our childhood and the actors became out crushed. As we grew – and the movies progressed, we went deeper into the HP and fell in love with even more characters, the most shocking being Professor Snape, played by Alan Rickman.
The head of Slytherin, we met Snape in the first film, ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ and instantly disliked him for his antagonistic behaviour towards Potter, his friends and his family. While the dislike grew even more when we saw him kill Headmaster Albus Dumbledore in ‘Half-Blood Prince,’ we fell in love with and pitied his character thanks to the big revelation made in ‘Deathly Hallows – Part 2.’
For those who don’t remember (Potterheads will cast a spell on you), in the final Harry Potter film, it is revealed that everything Alan Rickman’s Professor Snape did was in order to protect Harry from Lord Voldemort as he was still in love with Harry’s mother, Lily. This love is visible when Professor Dumbledore questions Snape’s affection for Lily Potter, asking, “After all this time?” and he replies, “Always.”
An interesting piece of trivia not many may know about is that Alan Rickman almost put up his robe on playing Professor Snape. Yes, Alan had once decided to quit the Harry Potter films, but it was all thanks to author JK Rowling’s ‘tiny piece of’ intel that he stayed on board. Read on to know all about it and why the confidential detail made him change his mind.
As reported by Hindustan Times, in 2011, Rickman told HitFix that JK Rowling had given him ‘one tiny, left-of-field piece of information’ about Snape. Talking about how it helped change his mind, the late actor said, “It helped me think that he was more complicated and that the story was not going to be as straight down the line as everybody thought. If you remember, when I did the first film, she’d only written three or four books, so nobody knew where it was really going except her. And it was important for her that I know something, but she only gave me a tiny piece of information which helped me think it was a more ambiguous route.”
In 2016, after Alan Rickman passed away, a fan asked JK Rowling what it was that she told him about Snape. The Harry Potter author replied, “I told Alan what lies behind the word ‘always.’” That secret would definitely make anyone change their mind.
