The one scene Alan Rickman wished everyone had chance to see: “I’m sad about that”
Alan Rickman’s tendency to take a villainous role and turn it into much more is one of the primary reasons for his iconic legacy, such that whether he was causing drama at Hogwarts or ruining our festivities with a Joni Mitchell record, his antagonists were always captivating.
Of course, he didn’t exclusively play bad guys, but there’s a reason why he so often found himself cast in this kind of role, which is that he knew how to bring depth to evil and charm an audience. When he wasn’t weaponising his deep voice for a role filled with evil, though, you could probably find him in a period drama, like Sense and Sensibility or Michael Collins.
The latter, directed by Neil Jordan, saw Rickman play the important Irish politician Éamon de Valera, a major figure in the War of Independence who later became the president of Ireland. At the beginning of the film, we see de Valera sentenced to death following the Easter Rising of 1916, but he is spared, meeting the titular character, played by Liam Neeson, behind bars.
The film charts the country’s fight for independence against the United Kingdom, but Rickman later revealed that he was disappointed to see that a certain ending that was shot for the movie was left out of the final cut, which is often the case in Hollywood where various scenes don’t make the cut, and instead it’s the one that pleases the big studio heads the most that comes out on top.
Hollywood has a strict agenda, and if an ending doesn’t fit the mould, then there could be trouble, so appeasing those with money is just the way it goes, and Rickman knew this, even if it is disappointing to see a more palatable ending on screen in place of one he thought would’ve been more fulfilling.
Many movies have been forced to change their final scenes for the sake of ending on a more optimistic note, with prime examples being the Will Smith apocalypse film I Am Legend, which initially had a much darker end, and Blade Runner, which saw a happier ending released for the theatrical cut in spite of Ridley Scott’s less savoury ideas.
In conversation with The Guardian, Rickman explained, “We shot an ending that didn’t make it into the film, and I’m sad about that because I think that would have made it more equivocal”. The difficult reality of the cinema industry is that endings typically need to be somewhat hopeful, with the actor adding, “But, of course, there’s pressure from Hollywood to have a happy ending”.
The ending that didn’t make it into the movie must’ve been really sad, because Michael Collins (spoiler alert) ends with the titular character’s death, his fiancée Kitty, played by Julia Roberts, discovering the tragic news as she tries on a wedding dress.
Michael Collins was received well, with Rickman earning a Bafta nomination for his portrayal of de Valera, and while it might not be one of his most well-remembered movies from the 1990s, he certainly turned in a good performance, but when did he not?
