Alan Rickman — Art and Politics and Wine

So little time with Alan Rickman when he was here for Bottle Shock in 2008 (interview here). I did, though, get in a question that mixed two things about which he was passionate, though — art and politics as evinced in a production of “My Name Is Rachel Corrie,” which he had directed and co-written.

My favorite moment of my close encounter with Rickman didn’t come when I talked with him. It was just before, when he gently but firmly explained to the person preceding me in the press day lineup that he never discussed the Harry Potter films, or his role in them as Severus Snape. And this was because, he said, he didn’t want to ruin the illusion for the younger fans.

I was alway grateful that hadn’t been one of my questions. And that I had brought a copy of one of his wildly romantic turns in Truly, Madly, Deeply for him to autograph.