Alan Rickman was one of those actors who was always worth watching on screen. While he made millions of fans as part of the Harry Potter franchise, the actor played many roles that fans grew to love, and now fans will get a real look at the man himself as his diaries are set to be turned into a book, and his widow could not be more thrilled.
Alan Rickman began keeping a diary in the 1990s with the express purpose that they would one day be published. The actor's career was in full swing by then, and so the diaries will give readers a look behind the scenes at the work the actor was doing. But as Alan Rickman's widow, Rima Horton, told The Guardian, they will actually give fans a great deal more. According to her, the diaries show who Alan Rickman was as a man, including his humor and his perspective on the work he was doing. Horton explains...
I’m delighted that Canongate will be publishing Alan’s diaries, and couldn’t have wished for a finer appointment of editor than Alan Taylor. The diaries reveal not just Alan Rickman the actor, but the real Alan – his sense of humour, his sharp observation, his craftsmanship and his devotion to the arts.
It's one thing to see a favorite actor on the screen but it's quite another to really get an idea of what was going on inside their head when they were creating that role. It6's interesting to know that Alan Rickman wrote a diary with an expectation that it would be published one day. On the one hand, you have to wonder if there were things that he didn't say because he knew other people would read the words. At the same time, if he was completely honest there's a potential for understanding that we just would not be able to have otherwise.
And almost certainly, because he wanted to see his diaries published, he's giving information that he believes is valuable, whether it's about himself, the performance he's working on, or whatever else. The diary should be instructive not simply as a look into the mind of Alan Rickman but potentially for anybody who wants to learn about his acting process.
The diaries cover the period from the early 1990s until his death in 2016, which means they'll cover the entire Harry Potter franchise, which by itself will likely make a lot of fans want to dive into this. The complete diaries actually cover 27 handwritten volumes, so they're being condensed into a single book. Still, there's the potential for more books if there turns out to be a lot of interest in this one.
