Alan Rickman's Widow Sells Diaries

Best known for films such as the Harry Potter series and Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, actor Alan Rickman kept extensive diaries during his career. Running from 1992 until his unexpected death in 2016, I can reveal they will now be published in all their unexpurgated glory. Entries include worries about his role as Severus Snape in Harry Potter, particularly thoughts that his screen character was not as well fleshed out as in J.K. Rowling’s books. There are also comments about conversations of encouragement with Daniel Radcliffe, who was only 11 when cast in the lead role. ‘They are a detailed record of his career and remarkable life,’ says actor Neil Pearson, who these days owns a rare books company. He acquired Rickman’s archive, which includes diaries, letters and annotated scripts, from Rickman’s widow Rima. The publishing rights have now been sold to Canongate, best known for Barack Obama’s memoir Dreams From My Father. Rima Rickman already knew Canongate’s managing director Jamie Byng, son of the Earl of Strafford and stepson of the late Sir Christopher Bland, a former BBC chairman. Pearson says Rickman’s diaries also contain ‘his shrewd, waspish and often hilarious comments’ about films and plays he saw. And they detail stage rehearsals where he was both an actor and director, as well as meetings and even meals. He had a very wide circle of friends and acquaintances, including Prince Charles, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown (Rickman was a lifelong Labour supporter) and those close to him in his profession, such as Emma Thompson, Lindsay Duncan and Juliet Stevenson, who starred with him in Truly Madly Deeply. ‘Alan sort of adopted me when I was 20 at the Royal Shakespeare,’ says Stevenson, who did not know that Rickman was keeping diaries. ‘He scooped me up into his circle and we were very close friends for life. He loved to look out for young talent as they were a sort of children for him. ‘He would also come to see everything I did on stage

He did the same with Sean Biggerstaff.

Usually, I’m not much for reading diaries and correspondence, but I have to admit this piques my interest. Would like to read his account of “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.”

Unexpurgated? What are we about to learn about Alan?

I would love to hear his comments on David Yates. I think David Yates did a terrible job of HP5. This is what Alan wrote about him in the diary: “It’s as if David Yates has decided that this is not important in the scheme of things i.e. teen audience appeal.”

Unless they're desperate for $$, this is an odd thing for the family of a very private person to do. You know he talked some shit in those diaries and without any context (maybe he said Daniel Radcliffe was a putz, but eventually he grew on him) could be hurtful to people who considered him a friend & mentor.

I do hope, however, the thoroughly trashed "Love Actually" and his hammy co-star, Emma Thompson

I posted on here a few years ago about witnessing his effect on women. He knew it, and I saw him bring a department store (Liberty in London) to a standstill when he rumbled his beautiful voice at a saleswoman. She was a shivering mess. Word quickly spread, and women were hanging over the balconies to hear him. It was a mass WAP moment.

R10 trailed off there. Wonder what he's daydreaming about?

R10 Any snide comments about other celebrities are sure to be edited.

He vacationed with Ruby Wax.

She says it's unexpurgated r13, but maybe she's lying for the publicity.

He had a gay vibe so hoping he was a scathing gossipy cunt.

As long as they didn't mess with his sarcastic wit, I'd love to read it.

I'm in the odd position of simultaneously feeling grateful to and contemptuous of his widow for doing this.

I met him and he did read as gay, R16. Very queeny. The wife read as asexual.

Odd for you to feel contemptuous when you don't even know what the diaries contain.

Wonderful news. I just watched Barchester Towers again, bought the DVD just to see him. They just sold his NYC apartment close to where I live.

They were his diaries, R20. Most people don't want their diaries to be read by anyone but themselves, much less published.

R22 I’m sure he gave his wife the go ahead before he died, and they were carefully edited for publication.

No way she just decided to release personal diaries.

Nothing about Bruce and Die Hard?

I get Alan and Jeremy Irons confused sometimes. Interesting that Bruce got to play with both during his Die Hard days...

Alan Rickman never suggested that marriage equality was like marrying his son...

R22, it depends. In the 1800’s, people wrote diaries, but with the understanding that close family members could read them and maybe eventually the grandkids would read them after they passed. So they might have written, so and so was a jerk today, but nothing about their sex life or something really personal.

He might have written them with the understanding they would be published as his memoirs after his death, as a valuable property for his wife to cash in on. She has the rights, maybe someday something else could be done with them, like a movie.

I doubt that he would write anything about Emma Thompson that he wouldn't say to her face. They were longtime friends, and I'm sure, as much as I adore Alan Rickman, that he was very much a "luvvie." -- From bits of things I've heard about him, however, the things he might say to her face could still be pretty scathing!

A dear friend took me to Private Lives for my birthday. After the show we went to Joe Allen's and were sitting at the bar when Mr. Rickman. Miss Duncan and the Neeson's stroll in and sit at the other end.

One of the few celebrity diaries I'd ever consider reading!

When do they come out?

21 , did you ever meet him?

R20 and R22

People wrote diaries back in the day, but not everyone wanted their contents to be read by general public and or even family members. Often before a body was cold a trusted child, executor of estate or someone else took charge and burned personal papers of the deceased. This either of their own actions or by prior instructions.

Diaries, correspondence, legal or other papers people didn't want the world to see after their death, the lot were often burned or destroyed.

Princess Beatrice burned each original copy of her mother's (Queen Victoria) diaries after transcribing what she believed was necessary, and nothing else. To the eternal scorn of many, Princess Beatrice made sure only what she thought was proper of her mother's intimate thoughts passed into posterity. What lies in royal archives are those heavily edited papers, period.

Many others either in old age, or close to death did the deed themselves, (having all those fireplaces or other fires for heat or cooking did come in handy). If there wasn't a fire indoors build a bonfire somewhere on property and start burning things you didn't want world to know.

Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman

Introduction by Kate Winslet

Very divided, on this one.

My first thought. Diaries. Wait, that's one's private thoughts & feelings & even experiences. Is Rima the wife,the ultimate whoremeister or what? Shibby shabby. His secret self being trotted out for all the world to read just for Money. Hell, if Rima is that hard up let's start Go Fund me for poor old Rima.

Then I thought maybe he gave his OK. Maybe its been scrubbed & edited. So, not a violation after death.

Time will tell.

Hate to see such an icon tarnished just for money. hope not.

Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter if they are edited or not, It doesn’t matter if he slags someone off or not. It doesn’t matter if his image is tarnished or not. He won’t know or care. He’s DEAD!

R34 he wrote them with the intention of getting published one day. He started in the 1990s. He had plans to write a book in the 1990s but he said he would do so in the future. The writer of an unauthorized biography he hated had this exchange with him:

In November 1994. I asked Alan Rickman via his agent whether he would be interested in co-operating with a biography to be published in the landmark year of his 50th birthday. In January 1995, .Alan wrote me a scrupulously polite refusal in what the denizens of Wayne's World would call 'most excellent" handwriting; the influence of his art-school training is immediately apparent in me calligraphy.

Mal Peachey. my editor at Virgin, was so persuasive, however, that I decided to go ahead with the book. I informed Alan of my intentions, jokily begging him not to reach for the elephant-gun or the smelling-salts. He sent me another handwritten letter. 'Looking backwards is a strange thing to do - I will do it, but not now. It would take the smelling-salts, the elephant-gun and a large dose of hindsight to change my mind . . .'

British stage actors often keep diaries because their egos are so ridiculous and they are warmed by the thought that people will read them after they're dead. Think of Richard Burton.

"Wednesday, June 27th -- Had to film a scene with Dan and Rupert and that miserable little twat Emma Watson. Wanted to kick her in the teeth."

I hope he wrote about seeing Daniel's dong in Equus.

It will have a forward and introduction by Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet.

Now what gay things did Rickman have to say about Sean Biggerstaff?

Anything sexual?

[quote]I hope he wrote about seeing Daniel's dong in Equus.

That little thing?

He wouldn't waste his time.

[quote]Now what gay things did Rickman have to say about Sean Biggerstaff? Anything sexual?

Poor Sean was baiting Jews again last night on Twitter. Managed a total of 8 likes.

Back in the Corbyn heydey he'd easily have easily done 4 figures.

Sad!

Alan Rickman was one of the only good things about the unwatchable execrable Potter films.

[quote]Alan Rickman was one of the only good things about the unwatchable execrable Potter films.

Did you watch all 8 of them then?

Miriam Margoyles autobiography: Speaking of contracts brings up another Harry Potter story which I heard directly from Alan Rickman. He played Snape, and his charismatic presence on screen made him the most powerful character in the series. The final very long book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was being filmed in two parts. Warner Bros decided that both parts would be filmed together-and therefore he was only due one fee. His gifted agent Paul Lyon Maris pointed out that if the film were separately released, warner brothers would receive two incomes. Therefore Alan Rickman should also get two fees for appearing in both parts. Warner brothers refused and said they would have to recast. Recast Snape? Alan smiled. "Go ahead" he said. The day before shooting was due to start on part two, they agreed to pay Alan both fees. You do wonder sometimes about the mental acuity of Hollywood moguls. R44

Miriam Margoyles is full of shit, I would automatically distrust anything she has to say.

Did the other actors appearing in both movies receive a single fee because their agents weren't "gifted" and unable to negotiate a double payment?

Errrm, probably, r47.

This is why excellent agents are much sought after.

The Salkinds screwed over the cast of Superman in exactly this way. Superman and Superman II were shot together but released separately.

Hollywood accounting.

Anyone hoping for salacious content should be prepared for a lot of inane patter about Rachel Corrie instead. I hope he got a little cunty about Juliet Stevenson, though.

Apparently he says Helen Mirren has a nice smile but needs to wash her fanny

R50 why dont you like Juliet Stevenson?

I don't necessarily dislike Stevenson but view her skeptically; she did an Andrew Wakefield anti-vaccine propaganda film in 2003, in which autism is portrayed as a vaccine injury. After Rickman's death she spoke fondly of him but said some things that might be explained in his diaries, including:

"[He was...] always the first person to say when you were off the rails" and "He was very tough with me but in the best possible way. It's exactly what I needed."

In addition to being an anti vaxxer nut job Stevenson is also a vocal supporter of Corbyn and pushed anti Jewish conspiracy theories defending him.

She lectures Jews about anti semitism because Palestine.

She’s a typical left wing middle class dickhead convinced of her intellectual and moral superiority.

R54 has it right. Nothing worse than watching her being lauded for her “humanitarian efforts” by those smug cunts at Amnesty International in London

[quote] I met him and he did read as gay, [R16]. Very queeny.

Well that's the image most highly posh British men display, in'it?

R19 how did you meet him? R56 he was brought up on a council estate but got a scholarship to go to a fancy school.

This will be on the back cover: 4 Feb 2008: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Thank God I could do the coat up without visible strains at the seams

The costume designer said this: “The only thing we did is that every time Alan Rickman was going to holidays in Tuscany and coming back with two or three extra kilos, we made it bigger without telling him. That’s the only thing we did, but it was the same costume,” she said

He met Rima Horton when she was fifteen and he was a year older; both were keen on amateur dramatics. Friends for several years, they became a couple around 1970 and remained together for the rest of Alan’s life, marrying in 2012.

I doubt he will say nasty things about either Emma Thompson or Juliet Stevenson. They were among his best friends.

It's much more likely he would say nasty things about Dame Maggie Smith or Richard Harris.

R61 why would you expect him to say nasty things about any of the above?

I didn't say I would. i said it's much more likely he would about the latter two than the former two.

R63 Oh, what bad stuff have you heard about the latter two?

2.30 Physiotherapist

“Who clearly knows what she is doing, but has an ever present laugh. I decided to look her seriously in the eye whenever she laughs.”

— Excerpt from Madly , Deeply The diaries of Alan Rickman

-12 Gym. I’m not sure about all this.

-? The gym.This is hard work.

6 October Sitting in front of a mirror all day. However much I look at my face under such circumstances I never sell the full horror that photographers manage to capture. How do we edit that out? I rake my features looking for all the bumps, cavities and lines that litter the contact sheets...

This sounds very boring, and I am a big admirer of Rickman's. As I've gotten older, I've grown impatient with listening to actors talk (as themselves) and knowing about their real personalities. I do wonder, though, what that relationship with Rima Horton was like. It went on for 50 years.

A big revelation about Dame Judi Dench would have this selling like hotcakes.

Alan Rickman did not seem to think Michael Jackson was guilty (Surprising because I thought celebs with insider knowledge would think he is guilty):

2003 8 February Watching Martin Bashir’s documentary on Michael Jackson. Disgraceful, self-serving journalism. How much did that cost? Compare MJ’s actions with those of a million pederasts & paedophiles a day or the thousands of kids dying daily in South Africa from Aids. Make a film about that with your concerned face.

I read the Guardian extracts and found him quite an odd character, someone with contempt for politicians and the elite but who was more than comfortable accepting any offer of VIP treatment and gossipy lunches with politicians.

A strange man.

r70 Damn, excusing MJ and engaging in whataboutism AND defaulting to the suffering in Africa like some common clueless white person... I think I need to never read another one of these excerpts again because I'll just think less of him and I like my memories of him to remain warm and fuzzy.

[quote]Compare MJ’s actions with those of a million pederasts & paedophiles a day or the thousands of kids dying daily in South Africa from Aids.

What? South Africa? Other countries in Africa have a larger per capita rate of infection for children than South Africa does, and I glanced at the stats for 2008 just in case I was missing something here (because that's when he wrote it) and it was true back then, too.

Sounds like he thinks all the children in Africa with HIV got it because Africans are pedos. That's... something. He was not the smartest man in the world, was he?

R70, I wonder how much of that statement is really criticism towards Bashir, and not trying to somehow exonerate Jackson? As we all know, Bashir basically became a persona non grata in the UK in 2020 when it was revealed how she tricked Diana into badmouthing the royals in an interview. Bashir must have had a reputation already years before that, and obviously Rickman wasn't too fond of his style in any case.

These kids need directing. They don’t know their lines and Emma [Watson]’s diction is this side of Albania at times

what does he mean by that? What was wrong with her diction?

He likes Coldplay and Gwyneth Paltrow. My goodness.

[quote]21 October 8pm [To] Wembley Arena for Coldplay concert. They were wonderful – every song close to being an anthem already and incredibly moving to see that many people knowing the lyrics. In the bar backstage, Gwyneth Paltrow introduced herself (more beautiful off screen) and then [we] met the group in the inner sanctum with Richard Curtis.

27 November Write, appropriately, a thank-you but no-thank-you note declining the CBE.

SO IT IS TRUE

[quote] I get Alan and Jeremy Irons confused sometimes. Interesting that Bruce got to play with both during his Die Hard days...

Pics please.

[quote] I met him and he did read as gay, [R16]. Very queeny. The wife read as asexual.

British.

[Quote] They don’t know their lines and Emma [Watson]’s diction is this side of Albania at times what does he mean by that? What was wrong with her diction?

Diction is either clear or unclear.

I'm kind of torn on this one: I'm sure he has all kinds of bitchy comments about people, on the other hand, as someone else noted, I'd feel kind of bad if he talked shit about one of the HP kids (other than Emma or annoying Neville Longbottom creature) because they were only kids at the time & by all accounts, they really looked up to him & considered him a mentor. And Daniel Radcliffe does seem to be a good guy, if not the world's greatest actor

R81 he says nice things about Daniel Radcliffe.

I met Alan Rickman a few years before he died at a fundraising theater reception where he did a reading with Sigourney Weaver. He was quite chilly, which was a bit disappointing, but my date that night, a doctor, said to me "He is obviously in great physical pain." She was (still is) an accomplished therapist specializing in chronic cases and this was before anything had come out about his health.

His voice was as amazing as ever.

Uma Thurman and Robert Downey Jr. were among the guests.

It was an intimidating night.

R74 I hate that Bashir is the fall guy for Princess Diana being honest. How did he “trick” her ? He asked her questions and she answered. Very honestly and clearly with great pain over how she was treated. It seems he gave her a way to get the weighted blanket of her loveless marriage finally off her speaking her truth.

R84 according to fourth-wave feminism, women are perpetual victims of men and are therefore blameless if they go astray.

R84, Bashir and the BBC conspired to lie to her about various facts concerning Charles and his family, which triggered her willingness to go in deep.

That's why, dumbshit.

Blah, blah, blah. She did a televised interview. It was never going to be anything but a hit piece on her enemies.

The excerpts made me wish I hadn't read them. Not that Rickman seemed awful... he just seemed shallow and as obsessed with himself as most actors are.

His complaining that the focus in Sense & Sensibility was on the Dashwood sisters rather than the male characters was a low point. Apparently Rickman not only never read Austen, he had no idea what sorts of books she wrote. Not one of them ever centered men, so it was ludicrous that he was upset to find Colonel Brandon wasn't the star.

Watching Truly, Madly, Deeply in a movie theatre one night (and then again the following night) was a memorable cinematic experience. I saw it at a time that I needed to grieve the end of a relationship, and that movie helped me do it. Ever since, I've been a fan of Rickman and Stevenson. And Anthony Minghella. I never liked anything that any of them did more than hat little film.

But I think I'm going to curb my consumption of the diaries. I'd prefer to live with my projections than to know who they are in real life. Anti-vaxxer shit from Stevenson? Self obsession from Rickman? Not surprising, I guess. Just sorta disappointing.

Pretty, pretty projections....

R68, from the excerpts I read, it could be boring if you read it for hours at a time. But the entries were fairly brief and he's very witty. I didn't see the meanness that others saw, but he was succinct and clever. I wondered whether it was a bit of shorthand to remind himself of the incident at that point that he was trying to write a memoir.

[quote]Well that's the image most highly posh British men display, in'it?

Alan Rickman was raised working class. He wasn't "posh."

[quote]I met Alan Rickman a few years before he died at a fundraising theater reception

A comma would have made this less confusing, although also much less exciting to visualize.

[quote] Alan Rickman was raised working class. He wasn't "posh."

How you start your life and how you end it are two different things.

By the time of his death he was an upper middle class member of the elite.

Descriptions like 'upper' and 'middle class' are pretty much meaningless nodawys.

Millions of people who claim to be "working class" are on government welfare.

Money defines us. Google says—

[quote] Rickman has a net worth of $16 million. He is the 20th highest grossing actor in movie history. To date, his films have grossed over $3.4 billion.

Oh, please. "Die Hard" is not an Alan Rickman film.

I was disappointed upon reading the excerpts to learn that Rickman was a self-absorbed luvvie like so many others. As a long-time admirer of his work, I thought he would be better than that. Wish I hadn't read them.

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