Alan Rickman's career had only been known to me through his work in film as Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Hans Gruber in Die Hard, roles in Love Actually and Galaxy Quest, Judge Turpin in Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd, and of course Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films, but also through his directing of August Strindberg's Creditors at the Donmar Warehouse in London. The Donmar Warehouse is a company that produces older work which proves to be topical and important today. Friday he came to BADA for a Q&A session before going to again support the work of his actors in Creditors. He is a frequenter of BADA, and usually does a mast class, but only had time for a quick session.
Sometimes viewing an actor's work gives us an indication of what the actor is like in his personal life. This is not true with Rickman. I asked him about all his work in all its different forms, and how me might summarize his ambition as an artist. He said that he only does work that he finds interesting and worth producing because of it's central goal for change. His career has taken him through theatre and film, visual arts, and writing/producing/acting/directing. He is a man committed to raising questions through his work, which I found so refreshing in an age group who currently doesn't perhaps currently the importance of producing work for change, rather than producing work for yourself. (This ends up being the case regardless, just in a different order). He said that he's attracted to lots of different kinds of work, and is never hesitant to produce controversial work because, according to him, there are no right wing playwrights, so one doesn't have to fear producing work that isn't influential to the mind. He's an optimist and has a great heart, (this is often perceived as the opposite from the characters he plays).
He stands to me as a person who produces work because of his interest in human nature and loves being able to make people think differently about our world, and I very much relate myself to his ambitions. He wrote and produced a work entitled My Names is Rachel Corrie in 2005 which was very controversial because it was based on a real life story that showed Isreal in a rather negative light. There were demonstrations outside the Royal Court Theatre, and it also had a rocky road in New York, but he won tons of acclaim for the production, and it's currently being produced all over the world.
As artists producing work for others to see, the goal being to change minds, we must always dare to fail, dare to be controversial and cause a stir, for what else is art meant to be?
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