Alan Rickman said he would never again play Le Vicomte de Valmont, the morally destructive character in Les Liaisons dangereuses. The role pushed him towards the limits of his emotional wellbeing, but it also helped launch his film career when Die Hard producer Joel Silver saw him perform it and cast him as Hans Gruber.

Rickman first played Valmont in 1985 at London’s The Other Place, reprised it in 1986, and performed it again on Broadway in 1987, earning a Tony nomination. He described playing the character for two and a half hours, eight times a week, over two years as bringing him “very close to the edge”, leaving him in need of a rest or a career change before his film debut at 41.