“Talent is an accident of genes – and a responsibility” as said by Alan Rickman
A British giant in both film and theatre passed away today and my heart is broken. My phone pings with news and I read it while hearing his voice resonate through the screen from the movie A Promise.
He was a great actor and director both on film and in theatre, though I have never seen him in the latter but I believe in his talent. He started his career there and had excelled, always going back when he gets a role he liked. He broke Hollywood with his performance as villain Hans Gruber in Die Hard. As a proof of his talent, Alan Rickman had won an Emile Littler Prize, the Forbes Robertson Prize and the Bancroft Gold Medal, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Satellite Award, an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as the James Joyce Award by University College Dublin’s Literary and Historical Society. For the past thirty years, he delivered so many different characters and was a steeple in my film education.
Again, this week, cancer has taken away someone we loved without any warning!
Who else will give us amazing monologues that will stop our hearts from intensity and pure, clear and beautiful enunciation and diction? His voice was declared BY SCIENTISTS to be a part of the most appealing make voices (mixed with Jeremy Irons and Micheal Gambon). You should listen to Alan Rickman as professor Snape. He was the reason I even liked the character. You should hear him as Hans Gruber or even as the Sheriff of Nottingham from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I never loved to hate and hated to love characters as much as them. You should see him as Rasputin in Rasputin: Dark servant of Destiny. His characterization was impeccable and enlightening. Even if he doesn’t have lines like in the Texas music video for In Demand, his presence was intense, elegant, sexy, shinning and formidable.
Alan Rickman taught me in his portrayals to educate my self through any means, to not fear making fun of myself through Galaxy Quest, not to dismiss my role no matter how useless I may seem through Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, to be normal even when facing abnormal circumstances through Eye in the Sky, to choose when to speak can be powerful through Sense and Sensibility, to understand that there is many ways to present myself through Alice In Wonderland, to understand your character even if you don’t have the whole picture through the Harry Potter series, to embrace the unstructured way life presents itself through A Little Chaos, to understand that there is degrees to love through A Promise, and to be true to yourself no matter the situation and the expectation through being himself. There is more than one dimension to any story and he showed us that through all of hid performances.
I will not announce that I loved Mr. Rickman since the beginning of his career or since I was a child because I wasn’t. But I did go through a summer 5 years ago where I saw most of his films (not sure if I saw all). I recognized his talent for the beauty that it is and that I love him for that and for sharing it.
I want to share my condolences to his family, his friends and his fans. Goodbye to the hero of many and the inspiration for many. To the future generations of fans, he was a great man!
I’m going to end this with a letter that many might want to share with him.
Dear Mr. Rickman,
You believed you had a responsibility and you delivered. We wish you didn’t leave us but we are thankful you left us a legacy with which we can remember you and your talent by. Who will forget your amazing dictation and ability to charm anyone who sees your work? Who will be able to forget the calm and composed presence you presented in many of your films? Neither my generation nor any generation that will see your talent. You were my professor, my sheriff, my favourite villain, my worst nightmare, my Marvin, my Dr. Lazarus, my Absolem, my likely and unlikely romance, and so much more.
Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your talent. Thank you and I miss you already.
As the line goes in Harry Potter by JK Rowling: “After All This Time? Always.”
Your fan.
Now we wait for Through the Looking Glass in may and while watching his whole filmography.
To read more about Alan Rickman himself, my favourite piece that i have read today was by the Guardian.
