Oliver Masucci
Acting star takes on the role of Snape
“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”: Oliver Masucci will take on the role of Severus Snape for selected dates from February 29th.
© Sandra Ludewig for HPUDVK
Oliver Masucci is back in the “Harry Potter” world. For “The Cursed Child” he takes on a cult role in the wizarding world.
In an interview with the news agency spot on news, the actor talks about his experiences in the wizarding world and reveals what colleague Jude Law (50) had to do with his family planning.
After your role in “Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets,” you’re heading back to the world of “Harry Potter.” You will be on stage as Snape in the play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”. Did you know the piece before you got the offer?
Oliver Masucci: At first just from stories. My friend saw the long version in London and was really impressed. Funnily enough, that was around the time I was filming Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets in London. I have now seen the piece twice here in Hamburg. Basically, I only do things that I think are good, and I found the piece to be very good and beautiful. It’s extremely imaginative, a really great piece of magic. The stage shows its entire bag of tricks and illusion art here! The spells and dementors fly around. You see people disappear into telephone receivers, how they do magic and spin and how they are spit out and swallowed again. You keep wondering how they do it. And that’s exactly what I’m going to find out now, standing at the back of the stage.
When do rehearsals start?
Masucci: I start rehearsing in mid-February. From February 29th I’ll be playing ten performances as Snape. And then we’ll look further. That suits me so wonderfully: It’s the magical world in which I started as a fan, and then in “Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets” I entered the magical world myself as the head of the wizards. Now I’m on stage in such a great show, it’s a win-win situation for all of us.
The character of Snape, which you play in “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”, is probably forever linked to Alan Rickman, who played the Hogwarts teacher in the films. As an actor, do you have that in mind when you take on the role?
Masucci: Of course you have that in the back of your mind, but that rather inspires me. I also played in “Schachnovelle”, like Curd Jürgens before him. You’ll want to add another one on top. It’s more of an incentive than something to be afraid of. Of course, Rickman has shaped this role in such a way that you can always see him straight away. I can’t copy that. The role comes from playing through the text and what the text does to you. I don’t even know what I’m going to do right now. I’ll find out then.
What do you associate with the “Harry Potter” books and films?
Masucci: I read the first book to a little girl and found the story so exciting that I then devoured the other parts too. I was a complete fan, completely in the “Harry Potter” world.
What was it like when you immersed yourself in this world as an actor in the third part of “Fantastic Beasts”?
Masucci: Back then I received a request for an English project without initially knowing what it was about. These projects have code names and they only send out a few lines of the script for the castings. I read and learned about it and didn’t really know what it was about. Until I suddenly noticed the expression “Merlin’s beard”. After I said it eight times while studying, I realized that it had to be “Fantastic Beasts.” I sent off my casting video and two days later the director David Yates called. We shot in the middle of the Corona period. I lived in the hotel near the film studios for six months. For example, there was a scene that took place at Hogwarts and when I came to the set, all of the magic students suddenly ran towards me because they were on break and raced out of the great hall where the tables were set up and the candles were floating. And I just walked through the Hogwarts hall to my set – that was absurd.
You starred in the film with big stars like Mads Mikkelsen, Eddie Redmayne and Jude Law. Who particularly impressed you?
Masucci: They were all great. I had the most to do with Mads at the end because we also partied together. For a long time you weren’t allowed to have any contact at all; in England it was sometimes very strict. So I was often alone in a hotel room where I cooked. At some point I couldn’t take it anymore. I did what Boris Johnson did and just gave up because I couldn’t stand it alone anymore. Then I called Mads and cooked him German roulades. I wrote down all these stories in my book “Dreamer Dancer”.
Jude Law was important to me too. In the movie Alfie he had all these women, but it was so sad because in the end he was just the lover. This film was so important to me that I fathered my first child after it. Jude Law is just a really great guy. We laughed a lot together.
Besides “Alfie,” were there any other roles or films that influenced your life?
Masucci: I was influenced by gangster films and westerns because they were on German television back then. Cinematically speaking, the spaghetti westerns were crucial for me. For me, Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone have become gods of film because they also broke new ground in terms of content. These films have resolved good and evil into likeable and unsympathetic. One of my favorite films is “Two Glorious Scoundrels”. Then Quentin Tarantino came along and completely reduced the dramaturgy of the film to absurdity. His films are an absolute must for me. Every year I have to watch Kill Bill at least twice and Django Unchained once. “Reservoir Dogs” is also a film that had a huge impact on me. David Fincher’s Fight Club is also an incredible film. The American auteur cinema of the 90s was great, with “American Beauty” or “Angel Heart” with Mickey Rourke. I just shot Roman Polanski’s “The Palace” with him.