why Alan Rickman continued to play Severus Snape, while suffering from cancer

The British actor who died of cancer in 2016 left a diary in which he tells in particular why he took on the role of Severus Snape in the saga, when he learned that he was ill in 2005.

It was in 2005, before starting the filming of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, that the diagnosis fell. Alan Rickman finds out that he has prostate cancer. The one who played Severus Snape in the first four parts of the saga imagined by JK Rowling, then decides to continue. This is revealed by the diary of the British actor, whose guardian excerpts published on Saturday.

Published more than six years after Alan Rickman’s death, this diary sheds new light on the actor’s life, but also on his relationship with the character of Severus Snape, which he played for 10 years. He wrote on January 30, 2006:

“Finally say yes to HP [Harry Potter] 5. The sentiment is neither positive nor negative. The winning argument was this: ‘We have to go all the way. It’s our story.”

“Something is happening”

Very committed to his role, which he will reprise in three films later The order of the PhoenixAlan Rickman also notes in his diary:

“I realize that as soon as the ring and the suit [de Rogue] are threaded, something happens. Being talkative, smiling, open becomes foreign to me. The character shrinks me, squeezes me. Not very good qualities on a film set. I have never been so uncommunicative with a team. Fortunately, Dan [Radcliffe] he fulfills this role with ease and charm. and youth”.

Alan Rickman, revealed in particular for his role as the great villain in glass trap, in 1988, passed away in January 2016 at the age of 69. He embodied the emblematic character of Professor Severus Snape in all the films of the saga, from harry potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 2001, until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2in 2011.

“Snape Heroically Dies”

He also confided in his diary his feelings after having read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (published in July 2007), and discovered the destiny reserved for his character.

“I’ve finished reading the last book of Harry Potter, wrote then. “Snape dies heroically, Potter describes him to his sons as one of the bravest men he has ever known and names his son Albus Severus. It was a true rite of passage. At seven Snape loved Lily, he gave me a cliff to hold. over”.

On the death of Alan Rickman, JK Rowling expressed her sadness and praised a “magnificent actor and a wonderful man”. Madly, Deeply, The Alan Rickman Diaries It will be released on October 4. The actor slides into his impressions of his fellow actors, political reflections, but also drawings and sketches.

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