Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickmanwas an English actor and director known for playing a variety of roles on stage and screen. Rickman trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing in modern and classical theatre productions. His first big television part came in 1982, but his big break was as the Vicomte de Valmont in the stage production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in 1985, for which he was nominated...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth21 February 1946
CityLondon, England
I get stage fright and gremlins in my head saying: 'You're going to forget your lines'.
Older people say, 'Oh I loved you in 'Sense and Sensibility,' and that's the only film they want to talk about. Equally, there are people who only want to talk about 'Galaxy Quest.' And there's a whole bunch of teenagers who only want to talk about 'Dogma.'
Unless we tell stories about ourselves, which is all that theater is, we're in deep trouble.
The more we're governed by idiots and have no control over our destinies, the more we need to tell stories to each other about who we are, why we are, where we come from, and what might be possible. Or, what's impossible? What's a fantasy?
Who I am gets in the way of people looking innocently at the parts I play.
Acting is about giving something away, handing yourself over to whatever role you are asked to play. I'm not hiding or escaping or seeking anonymity. I reserve the right not to have a rubber stamp on my forehead saying this is who I am. Because who I am gets in the way of people looking innocently at the parts I play.
I think the thing about film is, as it gets proved by a lot of young filmmakers now, that the medium will just go on reinventing itself, and so you just hope to be a part of that and not a part of some kind of endless regurgitation or 'Here I am doing what you know I do' kind of thing.
I'm a lot less serious than people think.
I have this feeling that if I could sort out what's on my dining room table, everything would fall into place.
Every so often you read a play and a character just speaks to you - almost seems to speak through you, in fact.
Being on the stage in New York is always exciting because you feel like you're part of the life of the city.
I'm a quite serious actor who doesn't mind being ridiculously comic.
A wounding tongue. I'm working on it. Perhaps its the Celt in me.
From my experience, I think that every actor has to make sure that they're in charge of their own career somehow or other.