Alan Rickman In Conversation Dublin International Film Festival 2015

Alan Rickman in conversation with Esther McCarthy at DIFF 2015

"Ireland's very special to me, I had an Irish grand mother I never knew. It's like meeting a bit of your past every time I come here." Alan Rickman.

"One of the highlights of last year's film festival was welcoming Alan Rickman to Dublin - an acclaimed actor turned director with one of the most distinctive voices in Cinema. When I introduced Alan Rickman before the Irish premiere of A Little Chaos I mentioned how I had, like so many others, first seen him on screen in 1988 as Hans Gruber in Die Hard - a role which redefined the cinema villain - and how he broke our hearts in Anthony Minghella's Truly Madly Deeply. In a career which spanned nearly 70 film roles - among his most loved are his Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films, the caddish adulterer in Love Actually and Eamonn de Valera in Michael Collins - he also directed two well received films: The Winter Guest and A Little Chaos. He was widely considered the definitive Valmont in the 1985 production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. One of his finest trademarks was the dexterity and snap with which he used his voice, he wrapped his body around dialogue - generating enormous power from the most simple of lines. Its so sad to think that the lovely man and great actor has now been silenced."

Gráinne Humphreys - ADIFF Festival Director.