Alan Rickman Letters Reveal ‘Harry Potter’ Frustrations

The late Alan Rickman‘s portrayal of Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies may be beloved by many fans, but it seems like the experience of making the movies wasn’t exactly magical for Rickman himself.

Neil Pearson Rare Books recently acquired Rickman’s personal archive for auction — including notes, letters, photographs, diary entries, fan mail, and scripts — and has released some of the actor’s letters and notes revealing that he didn’t always have the best experiences being part of the franchise. One letter, from producer David Heyman, refers to Rickman’s frustrations specifically.

“I know, at times, you are frustrated, but please know that you are an integral part of the films. And you are brilliant,” Heyman wrote in reference to 2002’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

The newly released documents also include a note entitled “Inside Snape’s Head” that Rickman himself wrote about his work on 2009’s The Half-Blood Prince that hinted at frustrations with the film’s director, David Yates.

“It is as if David Y. has decided that this is not important in the scheme of things i.e. teen audience appeal,” Rickman wrote.

The documents are an interesting look at the behind-the-scenes challenges of making the Harry Potter films, though part of Rickman’s frustrations likely came from the unique understanding he had of Snape’s place and purpose in the story. Rickman told HitFix in 2011 that once Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling told him the meaning behind Snape’s “always” line that he had a new understanding of his character that perhaps other did not.

“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,” Rickman said. “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.”

Rickman further elaborated on the concept of Snape’s ambiguous role to the Los Angeles Times, noting that playing Snape was something of “a punctuation mark” to his own life “because I would be doing other things but always come back to that, and I was always aware of my place in the story even as others around me were not.”

In addition to the letters, Rickman’s archive also includes notes from Rowling herself, thanking Rickman — who died in 2016 after a lengthy battle with cancer — for bringing Snape to life.

“Just back from weeks away and had to send a line about what you wrote in the souvenir programme for Hallows II. Made me very tearful,” Rowling wrote. “Thank *you* for doing justice to my most complex character.”

[ H/T: Independent ]