Alan Rickman: Making his way from Freelance to our Hearts
Alan Rickman, the legendary British actor, passed away last month. He has won a multitude of awards and accolades, and made numerous characters like Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series and Hans Gruber from Die Hard memorable for us. But the fact that makes the veteran actor closer to our hearts is that he was a freelancer once upon a time. He was one of us. This post is a tribute to his life and a look back at his life as a freelancer, and how it paved way for his acting career.
Alan Rickman was born near London in 1946, in a working class family. Before he donned the hat of acting, he worked as a graphic designer. He completed his Master’s in Arts from the Royal College of Arts (RCA) and began working as a freelancer with various newspapers like the National Herald.
It was during this time that he took to acting. He worked in the fringe theatre in London, and that attracted him towards acting. He took on the entrepreneurial role during that time when he formed a designing agency with a couple of his RCA friends. Later, he gave up on that and decided to pursue acting full-time.
It was the freelance life that gave him the time and the will to think about acting and indulge in the art in his free time. He earned enough through design to live a decent life and invest some money and the time required for acting. He said in an interview that ‘acting was always lurking in the back of his head’. But, it is the freedom he got that helped him actually ‘act’ on the thought. His entrepreneurial venture, Graffiti Designs, also became possible due to the same reason.
It is unimaginable how the world of acting would have been without Alan Rickman being a part of it. Now that he is gone, the world has become a little less talented. Had he taken up a regular job, maybe he would not have thought of pursuing acting. The freelance life saves one enough time and energy to dedicate in the areas of interest. For Rickman, it was acting. Liberty to experiment with various fields is a great possession, and freelancers have that. One can make use of the income, and use time judiciously to pursue multiple interests at the same time. That is exactly what Rickman did, and he has reaped great benefits, and given us the gift of great acting, and characters which have become irreplaceable for years to come. We thank him for all the inspiration and hope he rests in peace.
