Helen McCrory talks about Celtic grit, her strict approach to parenting, and her equally sought-after husband
“As far as I can remember, I have never slept with Alan Rickman…” Helen McCrory is so deft a master at the art of the deadpan that it can be quite unsettling. We are having a late breakfast, and discussing how she came to accept the role of the evil Madame Le Nôtre in A Little Chaos, a romantic drama centred on the court of Louis XIV, which Rickman both directs and stars in. Unflinchingly serious, with one pencil-thin dark eyebrow raised, McCrory takes a slow sip of her coffee before allowing a glimmer of a smirk to give the game away.
While they have never been involved romantically on screen or otherwise, she and Rickman – both giants of the British theatre scene – have had a long-running friendship, cemented by the Harry Potter franchise (she played Narcissa Malfoy in three of the eight films in which he starred as Severus Snape). “I was absolutely thrilled when he sent me the script and asked me to come and play,” she says of A Little Chaos.
Continue reading Helen McCrory interview: on motherhood, Damian Lewis and what makes her mad
