“It Wasn’t My Choice.” Alan Rickman Was Forced to Play This Role in the 2014 Movie
Alan Rickman did not want to play in the 2014 film, however, he was forced to take one role in that production.
Alan Rickman is a talented actor who is known to movie fans for his numerous roles. However, in addition to acting, he was also passionate about directing and has stepped behind the camera twice in his career. The first time was in 1997. That was when he directed the drama The Winter Guest.
He didn't step behind the camera again until more than 15 years later, when he decided to take on the story of the creation of the Versailles gardens on screen. Rickman's movie, A Little Chaos, had a truly stellar cast on board, as the film starred Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Helen McCrory and Stanley Tucci. So one can guess that a sizable portion of A Little Chaos' budget was spent on them.
And the producers, reportedly looking to save money, pressed for one role to go to the film's director, Alan Rickman. The pressure was on him to play King Louis XIV, whose role was not large, but significant for the production. Rickman wasn't convinced by the idea, as he preferred to focus on his duties as a director, but he ended up playing the king anyway. Rickman talked about his lack of conviction to star in his own movie during an interview with Screen Daily.
No, it wasn’t my choice. There was some pressure from the producing element as it solved one or two problems.
He said more about these problems during an interview for Movies, saying: “I tried hard not to, but it was a case of economics.”
You add up the numbers, and here’s an actor you don’t have to pay immediately. It makes the sums add up, and the producers just say, “You’re playing it”.
Rickman wasn't convinced to play in his own film, as it made his role as director more difficult and required him to delegate his duties to others when he was in front of the camera himself. In the end, however, he found some similarities between the two roles on set, which made playing King Louis XIV and directing easier for him.
I suppose the fact that there is such a watchful nature to somebody called Louis XIV. It’s a very isolated existence…You could see the mindset of a movie director might be his mindset.
He elaborated more on this point during an interview with Entertainment Weekly, where he confessed that it was only because of these similarities that he was able to pull all his duties together.
I’m not saying one shouldn’t, but I don’t know how it’s done. It’s really hard to switch. The only way I could do it was because in a way, he’s like a director, Louis, so you kind of keep the same expression on your face. As a director, you see everything somehow. It’s like a huge all-encompassing eye that sees everything, and it’s able to cherry pick: “Move that,” “Don’t do that,” “Do it this way,” “Change this color.” And I don’t know where that comes from, but it does, once you’re given the job, and I have a feeling Louis probably would’ve been a great film director.
In the end, even though Rickman didn't want to act in his own film, he got by as a director and King Louis XIV, figuring out what the two roles had in common and how he could use it to his advantage. As a result, he began to take a warmer approach to the role that was forced upon him.
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