Excerpts from Alan Rickman's Diary on The Guardian

What did he say about Bruce Willis?

We've been talking about some of them at the end of this thread here:

"My wife is a greedy bitch who does'nt respect my privacy.

Before he got into acting he was a graphic designer.

The fact that he was a secret bitch makes me love him even more!

A man of many aspects, all of them appealing to me...

His illustrations >>> his writing.

Sadly, they’re not insightful and he is revealed as a classic insecure luvvie. Actors are so needy.

R6 is right, his illustrations are the best bit and are something of a delight.

Disappointing. He doesn't seem to have been an especially caring or personable man.

Yes, he initially trained as an artist, I believe.

Part two, covering from 1994 until Potter, and then from after Potter until his death

And his opinion of a few films

The diary entries are disappointing, because they're mostly just lists of famous people at events or parties he was at, with often not much reflection as to what they're like or what they said--he comes across as starstruck. it's more interesting when he talks about working with someone on set like Kate Winslet in [italic]A Little Chaos[/italic]: he clearly respects her enormously as a performer but doesn't think she gives enough or is interested in the other actors (which is I think a good assessment of her abilities).

I hope these are better in less edited form and that he talks more about the personalities rather than just the fact of people being at parties and openings, which isn't that interesting.

I’ve always liked his work as an actor, but holy moley. Once I tried watching the film he directed and co-wrote, “The Winter Guest,” and it was like watching someone slowly turn the pages of a Pottery Barn catalog for two hours. I can’t bear the thought of reading these diaries for fear of finding a similar emptiness of soul there.

Yes, R12, I saw "The Winter Guest," too, and can't really remember much about it but the setting and the fact that Emma Thompson and Phyllida Law were playing mother and daughter. I do wonder if the diary entries have just been truncated too much or if that's really all he wrote. If the latter, he seems surprisingly superficial; was he not motivated to reflect and discourse on his inner world? I won't read the book, but these excerpts have been interesting. He seemed difficult to please, or maybe it was insecurity, as someone said upthread.

He had the most unfortunate face. also I sat through three hours of his performance as Mark Anthony at the National Theatre, and I wanted to kill myself.

He was wonderful as Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses opposite the fantastic Lindsay Duncan as Merteuil.

R14, I saw that production, too, and was reaally bored.

R16 wasn't it dreadful ? and who on earth told that old crone Mirren that disrobing to show her saggy old udders at the end would be a good idea ? That was puke inducing

I always liked his face--I found his looks really appealing.

I don't remember the udders, R17. I was just so relieved that it was finally Asp Time and that meant we'd be going home soon.

R18 then you'll probably find Walter the Hamster irresistible

R19 thank the lord you don't, it's probably a mental block . She was stark naked. I mean she threw her old dessicated pussy right in the audience face. And she must have been 60 at the time. Rickman/Anthony was thankfully dead already. I would rather watch sliced avocados turn brown than sit through another Rickman stage performance. He had the charisma of an urchin

I find Walter the Hamster irresistible, R20. He is fucking adorable.

R22 = Richard Gere. Easy on the Hamster, Dick.

His observations on Emma Watson are, indeed, correct.

"Emma Watson is a cunt "

Nothing to say about SNAPE WIVES? I'm so surprised.

R14, R16 the diary acknowledges that the audience found the production unsatisfactory.

[quote] unsatisfactory.

more like, excruciating

[quote] excruciating

I blame Shakespeare. I didn't see this particular production but I think it an unsatisfactorily written-play for a 21st century audience.

I consider him sexy, despite his hobby of throwing shade. His voice was so amazing as well, yet I can see why his stage performances were annoying because his ego blocked his talent. Maybe he was from a background that celebrated criticism of perceived “inferiors”

yeah R29, Shakespeare is a bad writer

[quote] Maybe

Maybe not, R30.

R29 didn't say that, R31.

I'm very curious as to why the wife sold the journals. Just an odd choice.

I saw Mirren play Cleopatra at the RSC with Michael Gambon in the early 80s, and she was brilliant, but that was a very good production.

The later staging with Rickman was directed by the talentless Sean Mathias (Rickman referred to him as "that Welsh git") and I gather it was less than compelling, certainly based on the posters above.

Even though I hate to say it, Mirren was good, she held the stage beautifully and the production was lavish. It was only Rickman who sucked. He had zero charisma, zero stamina, was whining all the time, and played a total loser. There was no momentum at the end. Every body was relieved he had finally, at long last, ended his whining.

[quote] I'm very curious as to why the wife sold the journals. Just an odd choice.

a gal has to pay their taxes

So glad I didn't see his Antony, or read his ponderous diaries.

He was SO good in Galaxy Quest.

It said in one of the Guardian excerpts that his diaries were all pre-printed with one date per page. One page isn't enough to do really detailed diary entries, and I agree with those who found this highly anticipated collection disappointingly shallow and perfunctory. But then, it seems clear he wasn't writing these with posterity in mind.

I did enjoy his criticism of Emma Watson, though.

[quote] Emma [Watson]’s diction is this side of Albania at times.

That's what the Academy-Award-winning scriptwriter of 'Darling' said about Julie Christie.

[quote] pathetic behaviour from the Labour party

And he used to be pals with them... having dinner with one (I forget which) of the Milibands.

He says Emma Watson may have lousy diction.

But she's wearing a microphone strapped to her underwear so it can hear her breathy dialogue which the stage-trained thespian can't.

'Antony & Cleopatra' is supposed to be sexy.

"Antony and Cleopatra" is a very hard play to mount. It has probably Shakespeare's most complex female character in it, and great poetry, but the action keeps switching back and forth from Alexandria to Rome from scene to scene, which can be very confusing. It's also one of his longest plays.

I would have preferred to have sen Rickman in other even darker Shakespearean roles, like Coriolanus and Iago and Richard III. He was such a great villain.

[quote] He was such a great villain.

He was the George Sanders of his day.

R34, apparently there will be an audiobook available with him reading. So apparently he was fine with it.

[quote]Disappointing. He doesn't seem to have been an especially caring or personable man.

By all accounts from those he worked with, even the Harry Potter kids, he was very kind and supportive. Now it just appears that behind one's back he was very bitchy.

He wasn't pointlessly bitchy. He was merely principled.

Yeah right, r49.

An acclaimed English stage and screen actor... insecure and bitchy?

Now I've heard everything!

R50 OK, Emma.

(I notice you're appearing in a teen mag which contains the word "Identity" in its headline; I guess we need to promote the idea that unformed teenage brains should be questioning their identity as well as buying clothes)

Yeah he does come across as just another British luvvie, and a superficial one at that, which is disappointing. The clincher for me was when he talked about going to Kathy Lette's place for dinner. Lette is a very irritating Aussie writer who has lived in London for years, though she graces us with her presence most summers. She was married to Geoffrey Robertson, a high-profile British human rights lawyer. Her writing is mainly frothy 'chick-lit' and is filled with puns, e.g., knight in shining Armani. And not only does she trot out pun after pun, if she thinks she's come up with a good one she repeats it endlessly, for years, in articles, interviews etc.

^ Kathy Lette used to be amusing trying to emulate the equally-troubled Ruby Wax.

But her manic autism has got totally out of control. Even the Woke ABC is wary of allowing her on live television because she talks non-stop over every woman on the panel.

Even her husband Geoffrey Robertson has had enough trying to control her illness and the son's Aspergers.

I published this on the other thread but it might be more in context here:

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.

I'll add to my original post that I am disappointed that his diaries seem to be superficial, but not 100% surprised.

[quote] his diaries seem to be superficial

He was obviously in great physical pain.

I admire his work. He dispersed into each role. His Snape was unforgettable.

Disappeared^°

I have avoided Harry Potter movies, Bruce Willis movies and Science Fiction movies so I feel immune to all the emotion and adulation apparent in the threads here about him.

I'm aware I saw him in 'Sense and Sensibility' and that odd failure of a feminist-movie about gardening in Versailles.

But I'm trying to think of something else in which I saw him but I guess, as R57 suggests, he disappeared into each role.

I saw him in the photos section of Ruby Wac's autobiography. I think he was in swimming trunks.

*Wax's

I personally can't get enough Emma Watson hate.

You are not alone, R62.

[quote]Yeah he does come across as just another British luvvie, and a superficial one at that, which is disappointing. The clincher for me was when he talked about going to Kathy Lette's place for dinner. Lette is a very irritating Aussie writer who has lived in London for years, though she graces us with her presence most summers. She was married to Geoffrey Robertson, a high-profile British human rights lawyer. Her writing is mainly frothy 'chick-lit' and is filled with puns, e.g., knight in shining Armani. And not only does she trot out pun after pun, if she thinks she's come up with a good one she repeats it endlessly, for years, in articles, interviews etc.

The friendship with Lette and Robertson makes sense - left wing liberal dinner party groups. Kathy Lette is the Australian version of Ruby Wax, a friend of Rickman from their RSC days and Robertson was a leftie lawyer and worked at Doughty St Chambers with Keir Starmer and other leftie laywers.

Rickman's name dropping for politicians and the contempt he feels for them is linked to his wife Rima Horton who was a Labour councillor and had ambitions to run for Parliament. Her Wiki says she ran twice but I can't see she was ever a candidate. So of course he'd dine with leaders of the Labour Party past and present if he thought it would benefit her, but also because he was a gossipy old queen.

I hate Watson, she's a stupid human being and a lousy actress. She makes the world a worse place

[quote] I think he was in swimming trunks.

And ? ....was that unforgivable nose justified ?

Thanks for the background R64. I'm a lefty myself but can just imagine their 'right-on' conversations at their Chelsea dinner parties. He also seems to be mates with Trudie and Sting and he's a wanker and she's even worse. Marina Hyde did a great take down of her in The Guardian quite a while back.

Kathy Lette's first book, Puberty Blues, co-written with a school friend when they were teenagers, was a good exploration of 1970's Sydney beachside surfie culture and made into a movie by Bruce Beresford. Her friend went on to an academic career while Lette, according to the friend, mostly wanted to be famous from the outset and pursued that, with success. A friend of mine interviewed her years ago for a radio show and said every question just led to an answer full of puns, even if those responses didn't really address the question.

Cleopatra is supposed to be fascinating and irresistible

Surprise! Another cantankerous British turdball.

[quote]Kathy Lette's first book, Puberty Blues, co-written with a school friend when they were teenagers, was a good exploration of 1970's Sydney beachside surfie culture and made into a movie by Bruce Beresford. Her friend went on to an academic career while Lette, according to the friend, mostly wanted to be famous from the outset and pursued that, with success. A friend of mine interviewed her years ago for a radio show and said every question just led to an answer full of puns, even if those responses didn't really address the question.

Lette was briefly a hit when she wrote Foetal Attraction and Mad Cows. There was a lot of media interest about the movie adaptation and who would star in it (Nicole Kidman?) and they ended up with Anna Friel, Joanna Lumley and Emma Thompson's husband and mother. The film is so bad it doesn't even have its own Wiki page.

The Guardian's review was quite clear

[quote]The title of Worst British Film of the Year has been a hard-fought contest, but the winner more or less has to be MadCows, based on Kathy Lette's bestselling novel, which is so astonishingly bad it made me break out in a thin film of cold sweat. What terrible reverse Midas touch, what blood-chilling anti-alchemy can have taken such normally decent performers - Anna Friel, Joanna Lumley, Greg Wise - and turned them all into mugging berks?

Now I wonder what Alan had to say about that.

To be fair, his comment that he still didn't think Daniel Radcliffe was really an actor was written when Daniel Radclliffe was 13. In fact, Alan went on to see Daniel Radcliffe perform in every show Radcliffe has done. He was very supportive of him.

Daniel has said that he didn’t consider himself much of an actor until he was older, so I don’t think he’d be offended at all about what Rickman wrote. He’d agree.

Emma Watson probably would be offended, but she is still a terrible actress.

Did Rickman write anything about Rupert Grint? Of the three main kids, he was definitely the best actor.

He liked Daniel Radcliffe, he supported Daniel Radcliffe, he didn’t consider him much of an actor. (He still isn’t, and is an uber-luvvie and networker like Alan.) Alan supported lots of young actors. Danny Dyer revealed after Alan saw him in act as a teenager in a play above pub, he gently corrected Danny’s behaviour when he ignored Alan’s guest when introducing Alan to the rest of the cast. Alan wrote him some encouraging letters and recommended him for a job.

Mind you - neither was Alan Rickman’s reputation as a screen actor coasts on maybe 5 performances, he was frequently dull on screen and I can co-sign to his shocking awfulness in Antony and Cleopatra

His reaction to seeing Sense & Sensibility for the first time is telling. He wasn't happy that they'd cut scenes with the male characters to focus on the Dashwood sisters. HOW DARE THEY!

[quote]He also seems to be mates with Trudie and Sting and he's a wanker and she's even worse.

That excerpt came after the one where he described Coldplay as sublime and Gwyneth as a stunning beauty, which basically sealed my opinion of him as having been the most basic of bitches.

I was a little taken aback that he apparently thought children in Africa got HIV because of rampant pedophilia (they mostly are born with it or contract it as children while breastfeeding, not because of pedophilia) and that Michael Jackson wasn't that bad of a pedo, when you compare him to other pedos.

I imagine he was keeping his diaries as a reminder daily events and thoughts rather than any literary merit. My great uncle’s war time diaries were similar. It would read like this: Captain so and so is an idiot for appointing corporal such and such to that job plus a bit of detail. Or it has been a tough day the boys are struggling with the weather then explanation of said weather. Sometimes he would write about loved ones especially if it was a birthday or something. I doubt that many of the slightly bitchy comments Alan Rickman made were more than passing thoughts in many cases rather than lasting dislike.

[quote]Yes, [R12], I saw "The Winter Guest," too, and can't really remember much about it but the setting and the fact that Emma Thompson and Phyllida Law were playing mother and daughter. I do wonder if the diary entries have just been truncated too much or if that's really all he wrote. If the latter, he seems surprisingly superficial; was he not motivated to reflect and discourse on his inner world? I won't read the book, but these excerpts have been interesting. He seemed difficult to please, or maybe it was insecurity, as someone said upthread.

The Winter's Guest was written by Sharman Macdonald, Keira Knightley's mother. One of the boys in the film was Sean Biggerstaff who went on to appear in the Harry Potter films, barely worked after them and become one of Twitter's most notorious Jew obsessed trolls.

Sean Biggerstaff, for his name alone, should be a DL legend….

And he trolls?!—a perfect fit for this place

Sean Biggerstaff spent day after day after day attacking Jewish people. OMG maybe Sean Biggerstaff already posts here as Concerned European??

Biggerstaff would never call himself a "European" though.

So, should I keep this book on hold at the library or no, it seems like it’s very divisive?

[quote]A great film, I am told. Would I watch it twice? No. What does it say? Should Chiwetel [Ejiofor] get an Oscar? No. He’s in it a lot, looking worried, and breathing heavily. Is that enough? [Michael] Fassbender, however, is very fine. Makes you ferret to understand him. [bold]Somehow, I was always watching actors, not a story.[/bold]

Funny, I felt this way having read the book in the early-mid-80s for an equally and inexcusably dull American History class. As a descendant of slaves from two of the worst regions of the worst slave states (Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana; and Abbeville County, SC), I constantly had the feeling Northup felt himself somehow better than his fellow slaves. Had zero interest in the film version; I expect I'd feel the same as Rickman.

Wonder if Woke Twitter will try to get Rickman posthumously cancelled? After all, he seems to have liked JK Rowland and not been crazy about Emma Watson. He also complained about the Labour party when they displeased him. People have been cancelled for less..

Why would anyone care what Woke Twitter does?

There are 3 possible outcomes to Rickman's diaries being published,

1. People praise him, most likely people who liked him when he was alive.

2. People dislike him, most likely people who disliked him when he was alive.

3. Total indifference.

Interesting comments by him on Radcliffe. But I agree with another commenter, that he was writing that about the kids at a time when they had not really done anything else.

I recently started watching the Harry Potter films again. I never made it through the last 3 films (but read the entire book series in the summer or 2018), so there will still be some newness to some of them, for me. I would have to agree that Daniel Radcliffe was not a great actor, especially in the first film, but he was very young and even the better child actors had plenty of moments where the acting wasn't the best (which is about what I expect from actors of those ages). Still, Daniel did steadily improve over the next couple of films. I will be interested to see Half Blood Prince because of Radcliffe's comments about his performance being half-assed in that one and not being very proud of his work on it.

It does seem like Rickman was supportive of Radcliffe, so his first impression likely changed over time. I have only seen Radcliffe in a few other things since HP finished, and I thought he was pretty good in them. He seems like someone who really grew into acting rather than being a showbiz kid from much earlier in life, but I could well be wrong.

R82 You need to be fearless in your choice of reading. Because 75% of the current population are mindless sheep.

He would have had a bigger career with a smaller nose.

[quote] Why would anyone care what Woke Twitter does?

Because weak politicians and weak governments think the idiots on Woke Twitter mirror the opinions of the general electorate.

Which vindictive creature has greyed-out the OP's contribution?

I found The Winter Guest and A Little Chaos extremely boring too. He himself said once that he could never be a script writer because the pacing would be off, I would say the same about his directing skills. Nothing ever seems to happen in those movies. He said Ang Lee (director of Sense and Sensibility) told him "Be more subtle. Do more" meaning do more subtle stuff. I guess both those movies were EXTREMELY subtle which was what Alan liked I guess.

Also, in the 1990s he said he would write an autobiography in the future. I guess if he had lived to tell the tale, he would have just referenced these journals to write an autobiography, since he passed on his wife decided to publish them as it is (edited of course). I suppose she thought at least it was 'in his own words'. Many people said he was a control freak and he even directed and planned his own funeral in his final days. He chose which theatre director should direct it, who should speak, what songs to play, etc...

Aww during the event last night, his wife Rima Horton said she never once looked into his diaries when he was alive. Also they met at 15 and 16, first as friends. Eddie Izzard wore a bra!

Eddie Izzard

^. Izzard sounds repellant.

Sounds?

Eddie Izzard is looking comfortable and buxom there.

Buxom plastic.

R10 He was absolutely right about Fassbender. The fact that he wasn't even nominated when he was clearly the best is a shame on the academy.

2010: 23 November 55 Wimpole Street. Doctor’s laboratory. Blood test and reading many magazines, including Vogue’s info that Emma Watson was given a vintage Rolex “by her producers” … -----

Why would Alan write "by her producers" in quotation marks?

As far as the entries being sketchy or superficial — keep in mind these are just bits and pieces the Guardian has assembled from them. It isn’t a complete section from the book. His actual entries may be more fleshed out.

Sharleen Spiteri recounting the tale of her tango with Alan and how she felt guilty after Timothy Spall mentioned he'd hurt his back and it was because the director told her to fling Alan into the petrol pump like she wanted to fuck him!!

[Quote] Why would Alan write "by her producers" in quotation marks?

Because that was the article's phrasing and not Rickman's.

R104 no that was exactly lifted from his diaries. If it were by the editor they would write it in brackets.

[quote] Why would Alan write

He was understandably discomposed that he —a properly-trained thespian with an excellent speaking voice— is obliged to play second fiddle to a child who couldn't even say her script properly.

[Quote] no that was exactly lifted from his diaries. If it were by the editor they would write it in brackets.

The quote "by her producers" was from Vogue. Rickman took the quote down in his diary.

It's not understandable to expect a child, playing a child, to measure up to an old luvvie like Rickman.

Yes, R108, that's why the child had a microphone strapped to their body so the staff of twenty or so sound mixers could record her sighs and mumbles and then put them through Dolby to make a sentence which was audible and comprehensible.

While a trained theatre person knows how to project and get the sense of the line first time without rehearsal or need for post-editing.

[quote] Surprise! Another cantankerous British turdball.

R69 Nailed it. Not surprised though.

[Quote] that's why the child had a microphone strapped to their body so the staff of twenty or so sound mixers could record her sighs and mumbles and then put them through Dolby to make a sentence which was audible and comprehensible.

Have you heard of ADR, hon?

I thought the bit about the Rolex was that he was irritated that she got such a nice gift.

I found mention of it in a book that it was a 1957 Rolex, engraved to her on the back.

I'm sure he was. And the reason he quoted the article is because it said HER producers, i.e. not his or theirs.

R112 and R113 I think you guys are right.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Teaming the red dress with black tights, Eddie elevated her height with a pair of glossy, pointed toe heels.

[quote] [R10] He was absolutely right about Fassbender. The fact that he wasn't even nominated when he was clearly the best is a shame on the academy.

Fassbender was nominated. Jared Leto won for playing a soon to be dead tranny.

And re Emma Watson’s rolex, was Rickman resentful that he wasn’t given one?

It’s not resentfulness that he didn’t get a vintage Rolex. The whole Harry Potter experience wasn’t easy for the adult actors. I saw Maggie Smith and Jason Isaacs in an interview laugh about hanging around for hours waiting for the children to finish their scenes when all they had to do were a few pursed lips or snarling reaction shots). Alan was terrific in the role and enjoyed Rowling’s conception of the character but it was hard work and the majority of the films were helmed by the hack David Yates. There are talented child actors out there (of the cast Grint and Felton were the best of the bunch) but Emma and Daniel weren’t naturals (even through Alan liked the man Daniel became) and they were catered to eke the necessary performances out of them. So the Rolex was another reminder of mediocrity being prized.

R118 Yes, and the comments weren't necessarily rude when you factor in the fact that he wrote them in a private diary that even his wife did not read until his death. He said in the 90s that he had future plans for an autobiography but he may have just used the journals as reference so who knows if he would have included his comments re: Emma Watson. David Yates was completely AWFUL!!!

MAGGI SMITH: Well, I'll tell you I just did adore Daniel - Daniel Radcliffe, who I had worked with before Harry Potter and spent a long time telling all the producers they had to see him because I thought he was so terrific. And it's been sad thinking about it because of Alan Rickman... : ...Who - yes, he was such a terrific actor, and that was such a terrific character that he played. And it was a joy to be with him. We used to laugh together because we ran out of reaction shots. They were always - when everything had been done and the children were finished, they would turn the camera around and we'd have to do various reaction shots of amazement or sadness and things. And we used to say we'd got to about number 200-and-something and we'd run out of knowing what to do when the camera came around on us. But he was a joy.

I use a diary to get out thoughts and feelings I don't wish to carry. People judging someone based on their diary are dense.

R121 agreed

I'm the snob at R59. I've been bingeing on Youtube videos of his publicity interviews over 30 years.

His big career started in the NY production of Dangerous Liaisons but his role in the film version was stolen by the weedy, thin-voiced Malkovich.

Rickman has a rich voice but some his dumb American interviews are so painful that he spends half the interview with his eyelids down to shut them out.

He had a look.

Those of you who hate the Nose...how can you??? It's probably at least partially responsible for that fantastic voice.

Plus, I want to sit on it.

His nose is the opposite to—

I think 1980s Alan Rickman with the mane and beard is one of the sexiest men I have ever seen. The voice. Those massive hands. The cruel, yet sensual mouth.

I admit he did himself no later favors and was very disappointed that Snape was not played as the illustrations to HP showed him (with curly hair and a beard) .

[quote] Snape with curly hair and a beard

Perhaps Warner Bros thought that would make Rickman too Rasputin-like.

He'd already done that look in Robin Hood.

R129, OMG, he's the lead singer from an 80s hair band. Yikes.

[quote]I imagine he was keeping his diaries as a reminder daily events and thoughts rather than any literary merit.

I read in an article that he wrote them with the intent of them being published after his death.

Oof. No. Those eyes are such a turn off.

11 June 2011 Watching a bit more of Monster’s Ball and Lady Gaga announces her Tisch School ancestry. Now I know that she is to be taken seriously. Because she trained. Has a process

13 September 2011 Listened to Adele 21. She’s doing what she was born to

Did his diary detail the type of GUYS he found hot?

R134 no but he said Julia Roberts has "a very encirclabe waist"

R133 Did he really say those things? He's more gullible than I thought.

R136 yes he did

I wonder what he says about Linsday Duncan who starred with him in LIAISONS DANGEREUSES and PRIVATE LIVES. I found her to be the weak link in the latter.

R138

28 September The show is full of good things – mainly from a lighter, flirtier Lindsay

2 October The show is Tuesday Bizarre. Lindsay takes Amanda8 into a scarily downmarket area during Act 1. I shouldn’t say anything, but do . . . Act 2 is back on track. The thing is – this play doesn’t work unless we’re talking to each other. As soon as one of us does a number we’re in all sorts of trouble.

[quote] scarily downmarket area … does a number…

What does that mean?

These diary jottings are full of colloquialisms and not mean for publication.

The ghetto

I hope the American version is annotated then!

He was accusing Lindsay Duncan of being a low comedienne?

I had looked forward to these because I've always loved Alan Rickman, but the diaries sound like a great disappointment.

That's a shame because I thought he was a great actor, tremendously sexy, I wanted to have sex with his nose, and even worse, I loved 'The Winter Guest.'

Thought his best was 'Truly, Madly, Deeply'. with Juliet Stevenson who was also wonderful in the movie. Apparently they were friends for years but Stevenson is a crackpot?

So much for my taste.

Actors "feel," they often don't think...

R145 Well that depends upon what acting school you go to, I don’t think those Brits really ever bought into the Method, which was much more feely.

[quote] starstruck. it's more interesting when he talks about working with someone on set like Kate Winslet in [italic]A Little Chaos[/italic]: he clearly respects her enormously as a performer but doesn't think she gives enough or is interested in the other actors (which is I think a good assessment of her abilities).

You’ve piqued my interest r11 because this is precisely why I have never warmed to Kate Winslet’s acting. I am never watching a character but am watching her act. I find her quite “big” and Joan Crawfordy, like she’s performing to the camera and would give the same performance of a scene regardless of whether her scene partner is a 90- year-old Swedish grandfather, a 30-year-old California surfer or a 6-year-old Darfur orphan. She doesn’t respond to the actions of the other actors in her performance. Fine in scenery chewing, meaty roles like in Titanic or Mare or Easttown but disastrous in quiet, character pieces that are dependent on delicate moments and chemistry like in Ammonite and also in underwritten genre schlock like The Life Of David Gale.

R147 yes there was no chemistry in A Little Chaos.

Entry after performing Private Lives the play:

2 February 8pm Lindsay has been throwing up and looks v. pale. The curtain-up is delayed. The audience seems drugged. after – Kate Winslet & friend Plaxie . . . then to Sheekey’s . . . I think I delivered a somewhat sanctimonious lecture about curiosity V. certainty but then Kate did spend the evening announcing verdicts on everything from ex-husband to George Bush.

A Little Chaos. 9.30 The actors start to arrive. 10.15 Kate Winslet arrives. Intimate and strange – to have known her at 19 and watched her become 35. 10.30 A Little Chaos. Its first reading. 1pm Barbuto. Kate, Gail [Egan, producer], Andrea [Calderwood, producer], Alison [Deegan, screenwriter], Rima & me. Still difficult to read Kate. She seems to be moving forwards and backwards at the same time.

Filming A Little Chaos

Also K.W.’s husband arrived and there was a distinct sense of an onset presence that distracted concentration . . .

17 April 6.15 → Chenies. Kate gives so little of herself – everything as an actor – but there is never a moment where she finds out anything about her fellow actors – or even says bravo or thank you. Strange to witness. Such a deliberately erected wall

Finishing A Little Chaos:

Au revoir to Kate. She moves swiftly and cleanly on – total commitment to everything. Ned, the children, this film, the next film, the kids’ baked beans, throwing [a] party, ruthless emotional commitment, ruthless emotional detachment

Thanks. Kate Winslet seems rather tough and insensitive. I fully expect her to lay waste to 3 more husbands, Elizabeth Taylor style.

I guess famous women have to put a wall up. Britney too said she was more guarded post "breakdown".

Does he not say she gives everything as an actor in that excerpt? But that she doesn't get personal in between takes? Not exactly a damning assessment.

It is a bit of a damning assessment in that milieu. The British film and theatre industries are quite different from their American equivalents. Everyone is expected to make an effort to be amiable with everyone else: "how's the family?" and the like. Perhaps Kate has adopted the American habits and etiquette since she's done so much work in Hollywood, but those "I'm the STAR, keep your distance" ways aren't appreciated anywhere but in the US.

Does he say anything about Sigourney Weaver and that awful film SNOW CAKE? Her performance wasn't bad but the script was I AM SAM level.

Haven't seen anyone mention his dig at Ewan McGregor:

[quote]Dinner with Liam & Natasha and John Cleese, Ewan McGregor & Eve [his wife], George Lucas & Mia, and Natasha’s sister Catherine. Mr McG. is selfinvolved to a jaw-dropping degree but like a child, so it’s somehow not repellent. But how will these people grow into anything at 35 or 40? It is scary how much they have to trade on a light-voiced, light-hearted, lightheaded 20-something

Mia Who?

[Quote] It is scary how much they have to trade on a light-voiced, light-hearted, lightheaded 20-something

Oh, please. Rickman would have loved some of that. It might have made him a leading man.

R160 actually you are partially right. He said certain looks go in and out of fashion and if you were to transport his younger looks to today, he would be very successful (maybe he was referring to Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston )

It's not just a case of looks, though. Alan Rickman had a heavy, dour quality, often malevolent. He had a niche and it wasn't Protagonist, for the most part.