A Harry Potter star has shared Alan Rickman’s heartwarming off-camera mission

I think most people would agree that Alan Rickman was the heartbeat of the Harry Potter films—at least if you ask anyone who's ever worked with him. Now, Gary Oldman (known to Potterheads as Sirius Black) has turned up at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival and shared a story about Rickman that, frankly, makes a lot of the Hollywood 'nicest man in the business' crowd look a bit lightweight by comparison.

Rickman the Quiet Legend

Oldman got quite candid on stage, talking about Rickman's presence on set. He wasn't just the brooding potions master, apparently. Off-screen, Rickman would go out of his way to make the magic accessible—literally inviting children onto set, often those who, for one reason or another, really needed a bit of wonder in their day. Not many actors at his level actively take it upon themselves to ensure kids can share in that world, particularly on a daily basis.

Here's how Oldman described Rickman's attitude to the whole experience when speaking to the packed TIFF audience:

Alan was kind of like the cheerleader of it. He was into it, he was doing it, so he was with it and committed to it.

It's not just a nice-sounding eulogy, either. According to Oldman, Rickman had an entire system, regularly inviting groups of children from schools, from hospitals, and from his own network of friends and colleagues. He'd bring them along during filming days, and even during lunches, guiding them around the sets and giving them a peek behind the scenes that most people could only dream of.

He would bring them in from a school, he’d bring them in from the hospital, he’d bring friends and their kids in every single day for lunchtimes and things. He’d take kids around to tour the sets, and we’d meet them.

Now, that feels like more than just the occasional charitable gesture—it was a proper mission for Rickman. Oldman admits he found it downright extraordinary, pointing out how Rickman really understood the significance of Harry Potter for young fans and seemed determined to open the gate for as many as possible.

More Than Severus Snape

Rickman, of course, played Snape in all eight films of the Harry Potter series. It's still a bit hard to overstate the impact of his portrayal, and the fact he kept this up until his last film is worthy of note. Beyond Hogwarts, Rickman popped up in classics like Die Hard, Love Actually, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, not to mention a hefty career on stage.

Alan Rickman died in 2016 at the age of 69 after battling pancreatic cancer, but his reputation for kindness on set is still getting talked about a decade later.

He also won his fair share of awards over a long career, including a BAFTA and a Golden Globe. But hearing Oldman reminisce, you get the sense it's the small, everyday gestures—rickmanesque grand tours for kids, especially—that are the ones people keep remembering.