The Reason Alan Rickman Nearly Turned Down Snape Role

Alan Rickman nearly turned down the role of Severus Snape in Harry Potter for a reason you wouldn’t expect.

The seemingly evil, then noble potions master will always be a fan favourite, so, it’s hard to imagine that the late, great Rickman nearly didn’t play the role.

He said:

I remember [producer] David Heyman and myself had to do the British actor’s dinner tour for quite some time. We went out to dinner with Richard Harris to convince him, and Maggie Smith to convince her.

Columbus went on to explain that Rickman also took some convincing and was reluctant to star as the love-to-hate character, Snape.

The director continued:

Alan Rickman was the same, and he was reluctant because he didn’t want to be typecast as a villain, particularly after Die Hard, and I guess Robin Hood [Prince Of Thieves].

Luckily, they convinced him, and following this, J.K. Rowling took the actor to dinner and ‘told him something’ that would ‘happen to Snape throughout the series and in the seventh book’.

This motivated the actor to ‘do these tiny little idiosyncrasies with his performance’ that Columbus at the time ‘couldn’t figure out’ because he hadn’t read the seventh book yet.

On reflection, however, Columbus called Rickman’s foreshadowing ‘brilliant’.

We agree.