Forsgren: How Alan Rickman Changed My Life

Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theater, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world. – Alan Rickman

I was about 13 when my dad invited me to watch a movie with him. I plunked down on the couch, right next to my dad, to watch a movie about an Average Joe New York cop trapped in a high-rise building overrun by deadly criminals. That movie, “Die Hard”, was like nothing I’d seen up to that point. There was bloody violence, profanity-filled one-liners and breath-taking action scenes.

And there was that bad guy.

John McClane may have been the hero of “Die Hard”, and he was a compelling, likable character. He said funny things and was easy to cheer on. But his antagonist, German thief Hans Gruber, was the guy who captured my attention.

Gruber was impossible not to like, even though he was the bad guy. He was slick, he had style and he was able to go quip for quip with McClane. Dude was pretty sharp, too. Consider the scene where he and one of his underlings shoot out a bunch of office windows because McClane was running around barefoot. That was a smart move.

Hans Gruber was like no other villain I had ever seen in movies. He was evil more because it was his job. That’s how he made his living.

And it wasn’t like he was desperate. Gruber cruised around in fancy suits and smoked exotic cigarettes. He clearly enjoyed ripping people off. He brags about being an exceptional thief at one point, as if it was a point of pride for him. That made him interesting.

There aren’t movie villains like Hans Gruber any more. Most villains have to have a tragic backstory or some great cause they believe in. This supposedly makes them easier for audiences to relate to. Gruber faked us out, posing as someone whose crimes were politically motivated only to reveal that he was just in it for the money. You could never get away with that these days. But the fact that Gruber was just playing at being a criminal with higher morals just made the character more fun.

Bringing Gruber to life was actor Alan Rickman. Rickman’s performance gave Gruber a dark sense of humor and a snobbishness that seemed more fitting for a successful politician than a criminal. That’s what made Gruber so interesting. He seemed to think himself above the people from whom he was stealing. And yet, at the end of the day, he was just a crook in a fancy suit.

Rickman’s performance as Gruber changed the way I look at villains and impacted how I write bad guys in my novels and screenplays. Gruber’s back-and-forth with McClane impressed upon me that the best way to strengthen your hero is to give a great villain to spar with. I constantly ask myself as I’m writing “is this bad guy as cool as Hans Gruber?” and, of course, my characters always fall short.

Rickman went on to play other roles which were pretty awesome. Many folks link him to Severus Snape, his character in the “Harry Potter” films. His turn as a frustrated Shakespearean-trained actor who found fame on a crumby sci-fi TV series in “Galaxy Quest” was absolutely hilarious. He was even the Voice of God in “Dogma”. He starred in dozens of films and stage production over the course of his career. He was an awesome villain, but he had the range to play any kind of character thrown his way.

For me, however, it will always come back to that night sitting with my dad, watching Hans Gruber match wits with John McClane. That experience changed the way I looked at the world. It defined what a great villain could be. All these years later, Alan Rickman’s turn as Hans Gruber is still affecting the way I write fiction, the way I tell stories. Hans Gruber has become a small part of who I am. For that, I will never be able to thank Alan Rickman enough. Thank you, sir, for playing a role in my life and helping me become who I am.