We take a look at the past to shape our future.

In 2002, Alan Rickman sat down with Charlie Rose to discuss his Tony-winning performance in "Private Lives," his approach to villains, directing "The Winter Guest," and why J.K. Rowling keeps the last paragraph of Harry Potter locked in a safe.

On Private Lives as three plays in one: "The first act is like playing a restoration comedy. The second act is like moving swiftly to Chekhov. And then the third act is Pinter. The fact that Noel Coward pulls all three of those rhythms off puts it pretty high up. He wrote it in three or four days. It's a masterpiece."

On what makes this production different: "I hope in this production you care about these people. Generally, they do absolutely nothing for a living, so it's hard to sympathize with their dilemmas. We found their vulnerable spots. It's a joy as a grown man to play another grown man who's actually about 11 years old."

On finding the child within: "You can find the child in yourself in order to play the child in him, and discover that the child in yourself has never really gone away. It's sitting there waiting to be relocated. One of the worst things about maturation is that we kill the child within us. Life wears too many people down."

On the actor's job: "I think actors should be the servants of the writer. We're a channel. Our job is to be the most efficient channel between a piece of writing and an audience so that there is this thing called a shared experience."

On training and technique: "When you go to drama school, if you're fortunate to have great teachers, it's a painful process where they take you apart before putting you back together again. The acquisition of technique is something that's there to serve your imagination and to get rid of your bad habits."

On directing The Winter Guest: "I was terrified, but experience tells you that the wonderful thing about film is you're surrounded by experts. A lot of the work has been done in pre-production. Once you hit the first day of shooting, everybody else is kind of doing it for you."

On J.K. Rowling: "She was a single parent with no money, writing these books in coffee bars in Glasgow in exercise books by hand with the kids in the stroller, not quite knowing how to feed them. She's already written the last paragraph of the last book and it's locked away in a safe."

GUEST: Alan Rickman, Actor, Director

Interview from 2002

0:00 Introduction: Redefining the villain
0:35 Clip: Private Lives
2:12 Where is Private Lives in great comedies?
3:01 Written in three or four days
3:42 Howard Davies discovered a new play
4:47 Revolutionary production
5:13 What makes this interpretation different
5:40 Finding the vulnerable spots
6:05 Joy of playing a grown man who's 11
6:40 Finding the child within
7:00 Actors must stay in touch with innocence
7:42 Training at drama school
8:54 Actors as servants of the writer
9:53 Feeling the audience let go
26:27 Clip: Sense and Sensibility
27:42 Watching it and wishing to do it again
28:07 Directing The Winter Guest
29:37 Clip: The Winter Guest
31:39 Harry Potter and what's next
32:25 Only seven Harry Potter books
32:54 J.K. Rowling's remarkable story

This interview captures one of cinema's most distinctive actors explaining why the child within us is the key to great performance and why actors must never forget they serve the story. History offers the clearest roadmap for our future.

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