A Little Chaos director Alan Rickman has said that he nearly turned down one of his most iconic roles as Hans Gruber in Die Hard.
The actor, who begun his career on stage, said that "having a film career at all is a bit of a surprise".
His initial reaction to the villainous role in the Die Hard movie was: "What the hell is this? I'm not doing an action movie," he told BAFTA at a celebration of his work.
"I didn't know anything about LA. I didn't know anything about the film business... I'd never made a film before, but I was extremely cheap."
However he said that he was won over by the humour in the script and the fact that it was so progressive and ahead of its time: "Every single black character in that film is positive and highly intelligent. So, 28 years ago, that's quite revolutionary, and quietly so."
He also had a couple of suggestions for his character - he decided it would be more interesting for Gruber to wear a suit than the full terrorist gear, and in one scene pretend to be a hostage.
He left a note on the producer Joel Silver’s table with his suggestions and he said: “I got Joel saying, ‘Get the hell out of here, you’ll wear what you’re told.’ But when I came back, I was handed a new script. It showed that it pays to have a little bit of theatre training."
Rickman's A Little Chaos starring Kate Winslet and Matthias Schoenaerts is in cinemas now.
