Daniel Radcliffe Recalls Feeling “Terrified” Of Alan Rickman On Harry Potter Set

Actor Daniel Radcliffe famously played Harry Potter in the film series, and now he’s revealed that he initially felt “so intimidated” by Alan Rickman, who played Severus Snape. Rickman passed away in 2016.

Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via Variety) Radcliffe said, “How can you not be by that voice? You forget quite how low it was until it echoes through you.”

For the first three films–The Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets, and Prisoner of Azkaban–Radcliffe said he felt “so intimidated” by Rickman, and also “terrified by him.” Radcliffe said he thought, “‘This guy hates me.'”

However, “Somewhere along the lines he saw that I really wanted to do this and work at it,” Radcliffe said.

Over time, though, Radcliffe and Rickman bonded. Rickman even ended a vacation short so he could come watch Radcliffe on Broadway in Equus.

“He saw every piece of stage work I did when he was alive,” Radcliffe said. “He would take me out afterwards and we would talk about it.”

Radcliffe gave this response after being shown a clip from 2016 in which Rickman praised Radcliffe and the other young actors in the Harry Potter series. “As much as I was doing it for seven weeks, they were doing it for 52 weeks,” Rickman said. “This was their life from 12 to 22. And you would watch it from the sidelines at times and throw the odd lifeline in because there was so little time for that.”

Prior to playing Snape, one of Rickman’s first prominent film roles was Hans Gruber, the bad guy in the first Die Hard movie in 1988. He also played the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, winning a BAFTA for his performance. He is also known for his roles in Dogma, Galaxy Quest, and Sense and Sensibility. Rickman directed two films, including 2014’s A Little Chaos starring Kate Winslet and his 1997 directorial debut with The Winter Guest.

As for Radcliffe, he has starred in many films after the Harry Potter series ended, including Horns, Swiss Army Man, and Guns Akimbo. He recently starred as “Weird Al” Yankovic in a movie about the comedian and singer’s life. Radcliffe also starred on the TV series Miracle Workers.