Schaut doch mal vorbei !

Looking like the cat who swallowed the canary – in one bite, no less – actor Alan Rickman smiles and pauses to consider the question: What words are the most fun to wrap his mouth around with an American accent?

Finally he gives a heavy-lidded grin – one that cautions against being put off-guard by his sleepy-eyed look – and says, with clear enunciation, “Barack Obama.”

He offers a dramatic pause, then adds with satisfaction, “Followed by, ‘Thank God.’”

Which sets him off on a brief political discourse: “I don’t think one realized (the impact of Obama’s election) fully until you saw the four of them walking to the microphone on that stage in Chicago. The whole U.K. was weeping at 8 in the morning. But for the longest time, you held back from thinking it could happen – until it actually did.”

Then Rickman moves back into junket mode: He’s here to talk about “Nobel Son,” a comedy-thriller from director Randall Miller that opens Friday. It’s the second film Rickman made with Miller to be released this year, after “Bottle Shock,” though “Nobel Son” was actually made first.

In the film, Rickman plays Dr. Eli Michaelson, a self-involved physicist who wins the Nobel Prize – at exactly the moment that he is targeted for a kidnap plot involving his slacker son (Bryan Greenberg). The resulting blend of action, mishap, comedy and physics is stylistically closer to films like “Layer Cake” or “Lucky Number Slevin” than “Bottle Shock”’s more laidback style.

Rickman has a whee of a time playing Michaelson as the kind of self-centered force of nature who leaves vortexes of destruction – at least in terms of interpersonal relationships – in his wake. But he stops short of declaring Eli a complete wanker.

“He’s like a 12-year-old,” Rickman, 62, says in that plummy baritone that has been fascinating American audiences since they discovered him in “Die Hard” more than 20 years ago. “So he’s not exactly redeemed by that. But he has no clue that he’s an asshole. I talked to Randy and, in some ways, it’s a portrait of his father. But not without sympathy, if it is.

“But he behaves like such a child. His son is missing, everyone is on the phone trying to find him – and Eli is eating Chinese take-away. Why? Because he’s hungry.”

His character’s emotional immaturity, however is more than matched by his overwhelming knowledge of physics. The fact that he looks like he knows what he’s talking about when he starts spouting quantum theory, Rickman says, has everything to do with acting and nothing to do with personal comprehension.

“I got about 4 percent of what I was talking about,” he says. “Mostly it’s gibberish to me. Unless there’s a visual aid, I’m lost. I was into art or the English department when I was at school. If there are lines or an equation, it’s some foreign language to me.”

Miller and writing partner/producer Jodi Savin battled to get the script to him – and once they did, convinced him to act in “Bottle Shock” as well: “They’re an amazing team in the way they subvert the system,” Rickman says. “I love their energy.”

Rickman recognizes that the system works against independent filmmakers actually putting their scripts into the hands of stars who have reached a certain level: “You’ve always got agents and people going, ‘What is this? What’s the budget?’ Agents like to get a commission on things that are going to be made rather than things that might be. I know from directing a movie of my own that there’s a fine line when you get funding, depending on when an actor is attached. It’s crucial to get actors committed before the money is there.

“I work more on a basis that life is too short. My agents know there’ll be trouble if I hear from someone, ‘Oh we tried to get that to you and we couldn’t,’ about some movie I admired. I know how hard it is. Independent movies are so important. The world is so predictable. The forces are so aligned against independent film.”

Rickman was already a well-regarded stage actor in Great Britain before he broke through in American movies. Since “Die Hard,” he has played a variety of multi-faceted villains – everything from an unhinged Sheriff of Nottingham in the Kevin Costner “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” to Rasputin. But he’s also handled romantic leads (in “Sense and Sensibility” and Anthony Minghella’s “Truly, Madly, Deeply”) and roles as drily funny in different ways as Metatron in Kevin Smith’s “Dogma,” a has-been TV star in “Galaxy Quest” and a straying husband caught by wife Emma Thompson in “Love Actually.”

To an entire generation of young (though aging) moviegoers, however, he will forever be Severus Snape, the potions professor in the Harry Potter movies. With a lank black wig – center-parted over a milk-white complexion – Rickman has caught the haughtiness and sense of menace that made Snape one of Harry’s chief antagonists in the early books (and something quite different later on).

Indeed, Snape’s centrality to the series leads Rickman to clam up about the character: “There are so many young people out there still discovering the books – and anything I say flies around the world on the Internet,” he says. “I don’t want to spoil anything. So, no comment.”

He directed his only film, “The Winter Guest,” in 1997 and has plans to direct a couple more. He continues to work on stage as well, directing a recent production of August Strindberg’s “Creditors” in England, after directing the controversial “My Name is Rachel Corrie” in England and America.

The latter was based on journals and e-mails by an American activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer while trying to defend Palestinian settlements in the Gaza Strip. Initiated at the Royal Court Theater in London in 2005, it was set for transfer to the New York Theater Workshop – but the controversy led the Workshop to “indefinitely postpone” its production. It later had an off-Broadway production and has been produced around the world.

“I thought the controversy about ‘Rachel Corrie’ was inevitable,” Rickman says. “I’d lived through demonstrations outside the Royal Court so I knew it would take brave people to put it on. I knew it was an honorable work, not one that was taking sides. But you can’t legislate other people’s reactions. It’s a hot topic so it’s best to stay calm and stay honest and have an open debate, which we did.

“The other discussion is about the level of commitment and being a world citizen, rather than twiddling one’s thumbs. There’s life and work and you try to bring them together somehow.”

Source: http://hollywoodandfine.com/interviews/?p=124

The marquee is up for the upcoming production of SEMINAR, set to star Alan Rickman, Jerry O’Connell,Hamish Linklater, Hettienne Park and Lily Rabe. BroadwayWorld brings you photo coverage below.

In SEMINAR, four aspiring young novelists (Ms. Rabe, Mr. Linklater, Mr. O’Connell and Ms. Park) sign up for private writing classes with Leonard (Mr. Rickman), an international literary figure. Under his recklessly brilliant and unorthodox instruction, some thrive and others flounder, alliances are made and broken, sex is used as a weapon and hearts are unmoored. The wordplay is not the only thing that turns vicious as innocence collides with experience in this biting new comedy. Previews will begin on Thursday, October 27, 2011 at The Golden Theatre (252 West 45th Street) with an Opening Night set for Sunday, November 20 at 6:30 PM.

The production will feature set and costume design by Tony Award nominee and two-time Obie Award winner David Zinn, lighting design by Drama Desk Award nominee Ben Stanton and original music and sound design by two-time Drama Desk Award winner John Gromada.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning tonight, Friday, September 16 at midnight and will be available through internet and phone sales by visiting www.telecharge.com or calling (212) 239-6200 .

To buy tickets in person, The Golden Theatre box office (252 West 45th Street) will open on Thursday, October 6. Tickets are $51.50-126.50, with Premium seating also available. www.SeminarOnBroadway.com

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