Aller guten Dinge sind drei
After posting a translation of some parts of the ‘production notes’ from the Perfume website website yesterday, here are some excerpts from a few interviews. I only translated the excerpts that mention Alan Rickman.

Tom Tykwer:

Alan was our first choice, and he accepted at once. I don’t know anyone like him who deals with texts in an equally careful way and approaches certain scenes in such a confident and inventive way. At the end, the plot in a way becomes a duel between two powerful opponents – Grenouille and Richis – and particularly Grenouille seems to be almost invincible. Therefore, it was important to me to develop Richis as a character who comes across as likeable and who also is a match for Grenouille – probably even superior to him. Richis is a widower, whose beloved daughter suddenly is in mortal danger. He is very instinctive and becomes the only one who seriously threatens Grenouille. I knew that we needed someone who not only manages to gain respect within the framework of the plot in the shortest amount of time, but also command it from the audience. Alan has an enormous presence, and it’s an added bonus that he feels very comfortable in costumes from this epoch. He puts it on – and it belongs to him as if he has never worn anything else. Alan showed me how much it ultimately depends on the actor whether historical authenticity can be plausibly conveyed.

Bernd Eichinger:

I have to stress that for me it was a huge pleasure to have Alan Rickman on board of this film project because I regard him as one of the greatest actors of the world. None of the films in which he participated bored me. In our film he plays a rich merchant from Grasse who by all means wants to defend his daughter – mind you, his beautiful daughter – from the serial killer Grenouille, who in turn needs her bodily fragrance as the last ingredient to complete his ultimate perfume. As a father Richis harbours strong feelings for his daughter, who is a potential victim because she is so beautiful. Although he doesn’t realise at first how close Grenouille actually is to him and his daughter, he remains the only person who can take on this strange murderer and who is clever enough to comprehend Grenouille and his motives. Therefore, we needed a really exceptional actor to play this role, and we found him in Alan Rickman.

Ben Whishaw:

You even have something in common with Alan Rickman, who plays your antagonist Richis. Both of you attended the same drama school.

That’s true. And I’m really fascinated by Alan. We didn’t have many scenes together, but the more I enjoyed the conversations we had during the shots. Alan is very intelligent and has a wise attitude towards life. Apart from that, he’s a fantastic actor, and you just want to watch how it seethes under his skin.

Rachel Hurd-Wood:

Alan is absolutely fantastic. He is really nice and extremely funny. He’s a wonderful colleague, sympathetic, helpful and very, very patient.