Turns Out Alan Rickman Didn't Totally Love Playing Professor Snape 

By Lauren Evans  |  May 29, 2018 | 2:55am
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It appears that Alan Rickman, one of the gems of the Harry Potter franchise, wasn’t especially pleased with his place in the films, a fact only revealed now that his letters are up for auction.

Rickman, who died of pancreatic cancer at the beginning of 2016, left behind a collection of letters that hint at the beloved actor’s irritation with the portrayal of his character, Professor Severus Snape.

According to Independent, a letter from producer David Heyman thanked Rickman for his work on the second Potter movie, The Chamber of Secrets:

“Thank you for making HP2 a success,” the letter reads. “I know, at times, you are frustrated but please know that you are an integral part of the films. And you are brilliant.”

Rickman was brilliant, so I’m curious about which aspects of the film he took issue. The answer to that was seemingly laid out in another note he wrote while filming The Half-Blood Prince, entitled “Inside Snapes Head.” In it, he criticized David Yates, writing that it’s as if the director “decided that this is not important in the scheme of things i.e. teen audience appeal.” It’s not immediately clear what “this” refers to, so unless one of us ponies up for these letters, maybe we’ll never know.

In total, the items up for auction include correspondences, fan mail, interview excerpts and entries from Rickman’s own diaries, all of which are compiled into more than 30 boxes and will be on sale for £950,000, or over a million dollars. Seems worth it. Look at this:

 
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