Emma Thompson on Alan Rickman: “I Trusted Him Absolutely”
Love Actually is one of my favorite movies. I don’t care what anyone says. And it’s one of my favorites in large part thanks to the emotional, raw storyline between married couple Harry (played by Alan Rickman) and Karen (played by Emma Thompson). Thompson and Rickman were longtime friends, and she has starred alongside and been directed by Rickman through seven films. Today, she wrote an emotional tribute to her late friend.
Here is her statement to The Hollywood Reporter in full:
Alan was my friend and so this is hard to write because I have just kissed him goodbye. What I remember most in this moment of painful leave-taking is his humour, intelligence, wisdom and kindness. His capacity to fell you with a look or lift you with a word. The intransigence which made him the great artist he was—his ineffable and cynical wit, the clarity with which he saw most things, including me, and the fact that he never spared me the view. I learned a lot from him.
He was the finest of actors and directors. I couldn’t wait to see what he was going to do with his face next. I consider myself hugely privileged to have worked with him so many times and to have been directed by him.
He was the ultimate ally. In life, art and politics. I trusted him absolutely. He was, above all things, a rare and unique human being and we shall not see his like again.
Their films together include Love Actually, Harry Potter, and Sense and Sensibility. Rickman directed Thompson in 1997’s The Winter Guest.
Which is your favorite Thompson/Rickman collaboration?
(image via Universal Pictures)
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