When it was announced that Alan Rickman had died at the age of 69, several personalities were anxious to pay tribute to the actor, especially his colleagues that acted alongside him every day on the Harry Potter set
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Just a machine…
Recently, a scene taken from the making-of footage of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has resurfaced. In this scene, we can see Alan Rickman and Michael Gambon (who played Dumbledore) pranking Daniel Radcliffe who was lying in a sleeping bag. And apparently it doesn’t take much to keep Alan Rickman entertained: a fart machine is all it takes!
The scene shows lots of figures and young wizards sleeping in the Great Hall. Dumbledore and Professor Snape – played by Rickman – were supposed to be having a discreet discussion which Harry would overhear.
But then, before Daniel Radcliffe laid down in his sleeping bag, the actor Alan Rickman came his way. The actor who played Snape slipped a fart machine inside without him knowing. In the making-of video, that you can find at the top of this article, they say that ‘something happened’. Everyone was of course in character at the time.
But Alan Rickman’s expression is especially noteworthy – he is all smiles – and very proud of his prank that can be heard right in the middle of his dialogue.
One thing is for sure, the environment on set of Harry Potter was a lot lighter after that!
