Alan Rickman on Punk, 'Potter,' and the Likelihood of a 'Galaxy Quest' Sequel

ONTD
October 9, 2013

In "CBGB," Alan Rickman plays Hilly Kristal, the man who founded the legendary New York City punk bar whose stage helped launch The Ramones, Blondie, and the Talking Heads. The film happens to co-star Rupert Grint (as a member of one of the lesser-known punk bands, The Dead Boys), proof that the "Harry Potter" universe is indeed all-encompassing.

We talked to Rickman about his own relationship to punk (distant), how close he stays to his former Hogswarts charges (fairly close), and just what kind of device he'd need for a "Galaxy Quest" sequel.

What made you want to take on this part?
I thought he was completely fascinating in the sense that he started a club that was supposed to honor country music ["CBGB" stands for "Country, Bluegrass and Blues"], and he never got to play any country music there. Along came punk and he was smart enough and open enough and generous enough to listen to what their point of view was. In fact, he became a kind of father figure to all these wild young things.

How did you get into character?
Lots of videos you can watch of Hilly and some private ones I was given. I was able to just watch him for hours, really, walking, talking, being. [The real Hilly died in 2007.]



Had you ever been to CBGB's?
I haven't, except in its new incarnation as John Varvatos.

Were you a fan of punk music?
Not really, because I was an art student and a drama student in London in the '70s. When you say "punk music," I never thought it included people like David Byrne, but now I know that it does. And also The Police. So I'd have been a bit more down that road than The Dead Boys or Television.

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Sneak peek at 'CBGB': Rupert Grint's inner punk

Bryan Alexander
USA TODAY 7:55 a.m. EDT August 6, 2013

The film, which also features Grint's 'Harry Potter' co-star Alan Rickman, follows story of NYC club.

Now for something completely different: Harry Potter star Rupert Grint on stage, holding a guitar and wearing a dog collar, in a band whose lead singer blows his nose into sandwich meat, chews the sandwich and then spits the contents into a rabid audience.

"I have always wanted to play a punk," says Grint, 24, who stars as rocker Cheetah Chrome in the historical drama CBGB (opening in limited markets Oct. 11). "It was really good fun."

Chrome, a guitarist for The Dead Boys, is one of the many musicians brought to life in the raucous story of the seminal club CBGB in New York's Bowery district, a beer-drenched springboard for some of the most vibrant new wave and punk sounds from 1973 to 2006.

The film focuses on the early days, when owner and operator Hilly Kristal gave a stage to a mix of new and veteran underground performers such as Iggy Pop, Blondie, The Ramones, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, The Police and Talking Heads.

"It was this iconic place, and it has this kind of history," says writer/director Randall Miller, who worked on the film with his writer/producer wife, Jody Savin. "But people don't know how it all began. And that's what we wanted to tell, the origin of all of this."

Kristal (Alan Rickman), a classically trained musician and jazz club manager, had planned to open a forum for country, bluegrass and blues performers, hence the CBGB initials on the now-famous logo.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2013/08/05/rupert-grint-rocks-cbgb/2600707/