That year, after the release of the first two films in the Harry Potter series, both word of mouth and box office were a great success. But Alan Rickman still had some doubts about his role, Severus Snape, and he even considered quitting the series, as playing the immutable Professor Snape was not challenging for the actor.
Alan Rickman felt that his performances in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets had not changed, and that to continue acting would be a repetition of the past.
Obviously, for veteran actors like Alan Rickman, only accepting the challenge can inspire their desire to perform and create. If the harry potter producers hadn't set out to add something new to Snape, Alan Rickman would really have considered giving up on playing Snape.
According to J.K. Rowling, when she heard that Alan Rickman was intent on "resigning," she immediately took action. Because in her opinion, Alan Rickman is the perfect candidate to play Professor Snape.
So J.K. Rowling told Alan Rickman a secret about Snape, and it was this secret that completely "kept" Alan.
So how exactly did J.K. Rowling convince Alan Rickman to stay?
When the movie Chamber of Secrets was released, the Harry Potter novel had just reached its fourth book. Rowling's original plan was to write 7 novels. Except for Rowling herself, no one will know how the subsequent plot will develop, and what variables will be in snape's character.
So, as an actor, Alan Rickman doesn't think snape's role will have any big breakthroughs in the future. He didn't want to play an unaltered role in a long-form series.
In fact, not only does Alan Rickman feel that Snape has been "unchanged," but in the second Book of The Chamber of Secrets, his importance seems to be diminishing.
However, Alan Rickman said in an interview with Empire magazine that Rowling, after learning of his idea, took the initiative to talk to him about Snape's character, and said that there was a reason why she did not dig directly into Snape's backstory. She was revealing Snape's secret little by little through some imperceptible details.
After talking to Rowling, Alan Rickman immediately gave up the idea of resignation and thought that Rowling was a very good storyteller.
They kept a secret about what Snape had shared with Alan Rickman until death hallows were released, and everyone knew about it.
Later, some fans did not bother to tweet asking Rowling what she had shared with Rickman. Rowling simply replied with a word —the story behind "Always."
You can imagine how Alan Rickman, when he got to know Snape thoroughly, would have been willing to give up such a challenging role?
Moreover, Alan Rickman is the only actor besides Rowling who knows the ending of his role in advance.