For millions of Harry Potter fans, Alan Rickman will always be Severus Snape: the intimidating Hogwarts professor whose sharp remarks and icy stare could silence a classroom.
But behind the scenes, Rickman was helping children experience the magic of the films firsthand. And a touching recollection from Gary Oldman is particularly revealing because another Harry Potter actor described almost exactly the same behaviour years earlier.
Speaking at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2026, Oldman, who portrayed Sirius Black, recalled how Rickman regularly invited children from schools, hospitals and friends' families to visit the Harry Potter sets.
As Entertainment Weekly reported, Rickman would show the young visitors around and introduce them to members of the cast, often during lunch breaks.
Oldman described his late friend as someone who genuinely embraced the extraordinary world the actors had been invited to inhabit. Rickman understood what stepping onto a Harry Potter set could mean to a child and wanted others to experience it.
Rather than treating the films simply as another acting job, he apparently saw their popularity as an opportunity to do something meaningful for the people who loved them.
Another Harry Potter actor remembered the same remarkable habit
Oldman's story might sound like an isolated example of a celebrity showing kindness to young fans. But Timothy Spall, who played Peter Pettigrew in the franchise, had already shared an independently recorded account of Rickman's behaviour.
In a February 2022 interview with Looper, Spall explained that Rickman regularly arrived with groups of children, including on days when he had no scenes to film.
Spall remembered how warmly Rickman responded to requests from people hoping to visit the production. He would bring friends' children along and personally show them around.
That detail makes Oldman's later recollection particularly interesting. Two actors, speaking four years apart, independently remembered the same recurring habit rather than a single memorable encounter.
Spall's account also adds something important: Rickman's generosity was not limited to moments when he was already required to be on set. He sometimes made the effort to visit specifically to give others the experience.
What Gary Oldman's memory adds to the story
Oldman's 2026 recollection provides an additional detail not included in Spall's earlier account: some of the children Rickman invited came from hospitals and schools.
Neither account establishes the identities of the visiting children or whether the arrangements were part of an organised charitable programme. What they do establish is that two colleagues separately remembered Rickman repeatedly sharing access to the film sets with young visitors.
Rickman portrayed Snape in all eight Harry Potter films, released between 2001 and 2011. He died from pancreatic cancer on January 14, 2016, aged 69.
His performance as Snape remains one of the defining achievements of the franchise, but his colleagues' memories offer another perspective on his time at Hogwarts.
For the children who visited, the chance to walk through the world of Harry Potter and meet its cast was something few fans would ever experience. According to the actors who witnessed those visits, Rickman repeatedly went out of his way to make that experience possible.
