In a lively, funny, and quite enchanting interview with City News.com, Tom shares quite a few anecdotes from his life and days on set for the just released Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
On following the lead goose, Alan Rickman:
Rickman had some fun at the young star’s expense:
“At the very end of a scene, after Snape has done his bit, we’re sort of walking out of the Great Hall in this goose, v-wing formation in which he’s at the front; he’s the sort of leading goose if you will.
“And he’s got this almost wedding dress cape on that seems to go three metres on the ground and the director was very keen for us to stay close behind to him, and of course, ‘don’t look at where your feet are going.’
“Naturally, before we started filming, Alan turned around in his very sinister way and said, ‘don’t step on my cloak.’ And we all sort of didn’t know whether he was joking or not.
“On the second take I dug my heel well and truly on it, which ripped his neck back in a hilarious fashion in my eyes but at the time it didn’t go down well. There was a rather awkward silence afterwards.
“Saying that, Alan is an incredibly nice guy and one of the funniest people on the set. There’s a lot of confusion there, people think that he’s a very sinister guy, but he’s hilarious really.”
On the great advice of Michael Gambon:
“There was actually a bit in there when I messed up a line of some nature and I was so nervous and embarrassed to do it in front of Michael [Gambon] and I was so apologetic for like 20 minutes afterwards and he was like, ‘do you know how much I’m on a week? We can do this all day.’ He was like, ‘keep messing them up if you can!’
On knowing his fans so well:
That’s really him on Twitter, and while he was in Toronto, he posted a special picture for his fans.
“There’s a car that’s taking us ’round which has actually got all the Harry Potter logos and stuff on it so I took some pictures of that and put it on Twitter. Straight away, as soon as I saw it, I thought oh this is hilarious, they’ll love this.”
This is a short clip from the interview he gave them at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto. It was posted with the article and was quite handily embeddable. They discuss the one thing the article doesn’t – his hair.
You can read the rest of the article here, and/or if you are so inclined, CityNews also did an article compiling quotes from the New York HBP press conference of Tom and his cast-mates Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Michael Gambon. The quotes chosen are just brilliant and good for a great laugh. You can read it here.
Alan Rickman sounds like he could scare kids.
never alan is a sweet man- and like Tom said: very funny.
I wasn’t doubting he was a sweet man… From what I’ve seen/heard he has a great sense of humor and would be amazing to be around. I would love to meet him.
A friend’s 8 year old daughter said that she thought Alan Rickman must be a scary person (as Snape can seem to small children), and of course so many of his films are really not suitable for little kids, even a sweet fun one like Truly Madly Deeply. But I suggested my friend try to find a clip of the scene where he’s playing the cello and singing a duet with the female lead, just to show his daughter that Alan Rickman is more than just the menace of Snape.
Of course, older viewers can pick up on the dark humor in Rickman’s portrayal of Snape as well; I bet he enjoyed glowering at Tom for stepping on his cloak. No one knows how to handle trains (on clothing) these days. 🙂
i am so loving this! i havent laughed like that in a while!
How do you see the picture!?
alan rickman is hot and i think he can be scary if he wanted to…
This post is so lulzworthy.
Yes, the shuttle from which picture you had shown us upon your arrival. Do you think any smaller version of it for kids to buy will be available soon? For I think it was really cool, actually.
With Love,
Sam.
“Don’t step on my cloak” hehehehe – If I was Alan Rickman I’d deliberately be intimidating in order to get a better performance out of everyone else. If they really were scared of him… they’d act scared of him better! lol….
Goose v-wing formation – made me laugh!
Hilarious… I would never dare call someone as intimidating as that a goose, though! LOL
“don’t step on my cloak…”
I’m pretty young and all my friends think I am weird but I find Alan Rickman very sexy! <3
I jumped on the Alan Rickman train way back in 1991, when I saw him out-act Kevin Costner into the ground in “Robin Hood:Prince Of Thieves”, then I thought to myself, “He sure is hot; is that the bad guy from “Die Hard”? He was hot too! And the rest is history. I am totally obsessed with this man, and I make not bones about it.
I really loved him in “Closet Land”; my mom was staying with me and my boyfriend and our dogs here in Cypress, Texas, and she was trying to get ready for work,(she’s a nurse in a mental health facility/jail), and she had to stop and sit down right in front of the TV, “Lord, he is TOO hot! How am I supposed to put my makeup on? I can’t quit looking at him.
Hi Tom,
I don’t know if its just me but your comment section looks messed up on my end, http://awesomescreenshot.com/06815nxcf9
Also, please tell me what is Alan Rickman’s real Twitter account? Thanks