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J.K. Rowling Reveals She Told Alan Rickman Crucial Plot Point Before Anyone Else

By Thomas Kuegler
Published on: 04:59 PST, Jan 18, 2016

J.K. Rowling revealed today that she told Alan Rickman about Snape’s love of Lily Potter, and the meaning behind the word “always,” before anyone else. The Daily Mail reports that Rickman even corrected the directors he was working with when they told him to do something he secretly knew was against Snape’s motives.

J.K. answered the question on Twitter that hearkened back to a 2011 interview with Alan Rickman, who said that J.K. gave him a “tiny, little, left of field piece of information” that allowed him to better understand the character during filming.

He said it “helped me think that he was more complicated and that the story was not going to be as straight down the line as everybody thought.”

“If you remember when I did the first film she’d only written three or four books, so nobody knew where it was really going except her. And its was important for her that I know something, but she only gave me a tiny piece of information which helped me think it was a more ambiguous route,” he said.

After J.K. let everyone in on the secret, Twitter erupted with reactions from fans praising Rickman for “never telling a soul.”

Ever since his death a few days ago, many of his former cast members have come out to pay their respects to his memory.

Daniel Radcliffe revealed he had a very special relationship with Rickman in a heartfelt message he released shortly after the news broke.

He wrote, “Alan Rickman is undoubtedly one of the greatest actors I will ever work with. He is also, one of the loyalest and most supportive people I’ve ever met in the film industry. He was so encouraging of me both on set and in the years post-Potter. I’m pretty sure he came and saw everything I ever did on stage both in London and New York. He didn’t have to do that.”

Emma Watson took to her Facebook page to write, “I’m very sad to hear about Alan today. I feel so lucky to have worked and spent time with such a special man and actor. I’ll really miss our conversations. RIP Alan. We love you.”

Hypable reports that many fans went to the famous platform 9 3/4 to lay flowers and other notes on the display.

Alan Rickman’s other notable films include Die Hard and the new film version of Alice in Wonderland. His last appearance in a feature film will be in Alice: Through The Looking Glass, which comes out on May 27, 2016.

It’s easy for fans to develop a certain persona about actors based on the characters they played, but Radcliffe attempted to clear any misconceptions about the late actor up in his statement.

“People create perceptions of actors based on the parts they played so it might surprise some people to learn that contrary to some of the sterner (or downright scary) characters he played, Alan was extremely kind, generous, self-deprecating and funny. And certain things obviously became even funnier when delivered in his unmistakable double-bass. As an actor he was one of the first of the adults on Potter to treat me like a peer rather than a child.”

Harry Potter was a monster franchise and has many fans from around the world. Alan Rickman’s death is hard to take for many, and this new piece of information about his on-set secret makes us miss him all the more.

[Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images]

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