Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber upped the ante for film villains.
Alan Rickman was known and beloved as a film star, most famous for his over-the-top villainous Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, his semi-villainous Snape in the Harry Potter series, his arguably villainous husband to Emma Thompson's character in Love Actually, and other roles that highlighted his ability to set an audience on edge. But we wouldn't know Alan Rickman as the film icon he was without his first feature film role as the insatiably villainous Hans Gruber in the original Die Hard.
Prior to being cast in Die Hard, Rickman had mainly acted on stage, racking up theater credits and accolades through the 1970s and '80s. He added some British television and radio performances to his resume as well, but his Hollywood debut didn't come until he was 41 years old and the role of Hans Gruber came knocking. His performance in the film would catapult him to fame, and he truly earned it. Here are seven fun facts about Rickman in that role that made him an instant and enduring icon.
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1. He almost turned down the role
Rickman had just finished a theater run in New York in 1987 when he went to Los Angeles to learn about a possible film role. “I didn’t know anything about LA. I didn’t know anything about the film business," Rickman shared at a Bafta celebration honoring his work. "I went to meet some casting directors. I went to meet some producers. And I think it was two days after I got there, I was offered Die Hard. I'd never made a film before, but I was extremely cheap." The classically trained actor said that after seeing the script he thought, “What the hell is this? I’m not doing an action movie.”
However, his agent and others told him that being offered a film role that quickly was practically unheard of and encouraged him to take it.
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2. He changed the character's wardrobe
Originally, the script had Hans Gruber wearing terrorist tactical gear, not the classy, tailored suits that we see him wearing in the film. "I was being fitted for all this terrorist gear in the early days of putting of the film together, and I said, why would I be wearing this when I've got all these huge hulks who are going to do all the dirty work?" Rickman explained. He left a note for producer Joel Silver suggesting the character wear a suit instead, which was initially met with a "You'll wear what you're told." But when he came back to set, the script had been changed to reflect his suggestion.
3. Pretending to be one of the hostages was his idea
There's a scene in Die Hard where Gruber puts on an American accent and pretends to be one of the hostages. Bruce Willis' character hadn't seen Gruber, he'd only heard his voice, so Gruber was able to fool him by acting like a hostage when confronted. That idea was part of Rickman's reasoning for wanting to wear a suit instead of terrorist gear, and Silver ended up adding it to the script.
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He nearly injured himself out of the role on the first shoot
The pretending to be a hostage scene was the very first shot Rickman filmed, and he hurt himself on the first take.
"I thought I had ripped a ligament on the very first shot," he told Empire in 2015. "Turned out I’d torn a cartilage, but I knew enough to go downstairs and see the doctor. I said, 'I think I heard something crack in my knee.' I was jumping down from a small ledge. He said, 'You may have torn a ligament. If you have, you’re out of action for six months.' I hadn’t even shot a scene! I was still in my costume, and I said, 'Could you pull the trouser leg down over that splint thing?' I went back up to the 33rd floor and carried on shooting. But the doctor said, 'Don’t put any weight on that leg!'"
Rickman worried he was out of a job, but the next day a fluid test revealed it was just cartilage, not a ligament, so he was able to continue shooting.
He was so good on first takes the director had to be better prepared
Rickman told Empire that he hadn't ever planned to have a career in film and didn't really know what he was doing when he started filming Die Hard.
"All I knew was that I could only take my theatre experience to the job," he said. "And John McTiernan (the director) said fairly early on, 'I’ve learned with you I’ve gotta be ready for the first take.' I didn’t know what take two, three, four and five and six were all about. We’ve just done it! But of course, he hadn’t got his lights right or he hadn’t got his camera moves right, or whatever. I knew nothing about any of that."
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The stunt coordinator tricked him to get a genuine look of panic in the final fall scene
Gruber's slow-motion fall to his death from the skyscraper was the last scene Rickman filmed, and there's a bit of lore that goes along with how it was filmed. Rickman did the stunt himself on a soundstage, being dropped from a height of 40 feet onto a crash pad. Rickman was attached to a rope held by a team who would release him on the count of three. However, the stunt coordinator, Charlie Picerni, reportedly told the stunt guys, "Let him go on one."
Rickman has said he didn't remember the countdown, but he did say the producers were "slightly incredulous" when he said he would do the stunt himself.
He appreciated how 'witty' and 'revolutionary' the Die Hard script was
As much as Rickman initially scoffed at making his film debut in an action movie, he praised the quality and longevity of the script in his interview with Empire in 2015. "As time has borne out, that script wasn’t stupid," he said. "Stupider films have been made trying to be it since. It’s genuinely witty and every black character is strong in it."
“Not to get a sledgehammer out to it, but every single black character in that film is positive and highly intelligent,” he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “So, 28 years ago, that’s actually quite revolutionary and quietly so.”
As beloved as Rickman was as a movie villain, those who worked with him spoke highly of his sweetness and kindness in real life. We can all be grateful he agreed to take the role in Die Hard, as it enabled us to enjoy many years of his iconic performances on the big screen.