Alan Rickman's 'frustration' playing Harry Potter's Professor Snape hinted at in previously unseen letters
A collection of the late actor's correspondence is up for auction
Previously unseen letters have suggested that Alan Rickman felt "frustrated" playing Harry Potter villain Severus Snape.
A newly-assembled collection of letters from the actor, who passed away aged 69 in 2016, include one from Harry Potter producer David Heyman after the Chamber of Secrets had been released.
Heyman wrote: "Thank you for making HP2 a success. I know, at times, you are frustrated but please know that you are an integral part of the films. And you are brilliant."
Meanwhile, when Rickman was working on The Half-Blood Prince in 2009, another note titled Inside Snape’s Head hints at some potential creative differences between himself and the director: "It’s as if David Yates [the director] has decided that this is not important in the scheme of things i.e. teen audience appeal."
Rickman's correspondence, which also includes notes from J.K. Rowling and Daniel Radcliffe, is going under the hammer and has been valued at £950,000.
The collection also features letters from the likes of Bill Clinton, Prince Charles and Tony Blair as well as big names in showbiz including Sting, Nicole Kidman and Emma Thompson.
Scripts from Die Hard, Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves and Truly, Madly, Deeply also make up the vast collection, which has been assembled for auction by Bridget Jones's Diary actor Neil Pearson.
"Every single script of a play or film, all of his diaries and a massive amount of correspondence from pretty much every one you’ve ever heard of," Pearson told the Daily Mirror, adding there were 35 boxes of correspondence that formed the collection.
