Shock and Awe

H/T to Steven A., who posted this on an Alan Rickman fan page on Facebook.

This week's Backstage has an interview with Mr. Rickman. Naturally, he's been doing a slew of interviews in support of his recently released film, Bottle Shock (which I hope to see at some point in time this week).

Speaking of which - what were those dunderheads at KTTV Channel 11 thinking????? In my childhood, I considered this the Vin Scully channel - even though I hated the L.A. Dodgers, I loved Vin Scully and how he announces the baseball games. (Of course, my absolute favourite is Jerry Coleman ("You can hang a star on that baby!"), who I consider the Master of the Malaprop ... but then, I am digressing.)

Go look for Rickman's interview with three dunderheads on KTTV's website, or easier yet, look for it on YouTube and you'll see what I mean. Oh, how the mighty have fallen; Mr. Rickman must have the patience of a saint to have to endure that drivel! He actually addressed this, quite gracefully, I'll have to say, with his good humour ("You just do it and move on ... you turn yourself into a letter and post it, and hope it arrives somewhere. What was the question again?").

Anyway, back to what I really wanted to talk about. The aforementioned article was well-written and very informative. It was in the form of a Q&A session with Mr. Rickman. The interviewer, Dany Margolies, and Rickman discussed the actor-director relationship, his early acting lessons, and the devaluation of American theatre.

(If I were an actor, I would have loved to have had the opportunity to take a Masterclass with Mr. Rickman. It seems like he's got so much to offer students by way of his experiences ... not to mention it would hardly be a boring affair with his very keen sense of humour.)

Parting shot - if you've seen the trailer to Bottle Shock, you will have seen that his Steven Spurrier character is eating a piece of chicken out of a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket. His response to that was hilarious. You should watch it in the video embedded below.