Alec Hopkins

Alec Hopkins is an aspiring English director, writer, producer and editor who is best know for portraying the teenage Severus Snape in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Career
It was announced in late 2006 that Hopkins would be playing a teenage incarnation of Severus Snape. Then 20-years-old, he won the part in May that year after the casting directors were experiencing some difficulty in finding a younger Snape. Pete Watt, the director of Shining Lights, a theatre group Hopkins attended at the time, had him send in his photos. He subsequently was offered an interview and then an audition. It took four months for him to eventually learn that he won the part. In an interview with Newbury Today, he was quoted:

"I obviously wasn't expecting it. As soon as I heard, I had this really big smile, and was phoning up my mum and my friends saying I’d got it. Some people didn't believe me, and some still don't!"

- On receiving the part of teenage Snape

He prepared for the role by catching up on the novels and reviewing the films in order to play the character more accurately.

"The part is pretty easy as it's such a small scene, but because the character has been portrayed by someone before, it's about taking someone's characteristics and trying to copy them. I watched how [Rickman] moved, spoke and the emotions he goes through. He also gave me some pointers about the character – how he would walk and hold himself, like keeping a straight back."

- On preparing for the character

He was further fitted for prosthetics to make him look closer to the character and later met with veteran actor Alan Rickman where he was given some pointers on the character's mannerisms and "got to see him act."

"Alan Rickman spent a couple of hours having a chat with me about the part and obviously that was nerve wracking; there was me as a nobody and then this famous actor. He's very serious about acting but he likes to joke around. It was really nice and it surprised me - I thought a big star would be different but he was so nice."

- On meeting Rickman

While filming, he wasn't allowed to leave the country in case he was called up to London at any moment for more filming. Once shooting wrapped, he attended the cast and crew screening.

To date, this is Hopkins' only professional film credit. In an interview conducted in 2008, he revealed that he was to reprise his role as teenage Snape in the next installment Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince where he would have shot footage for moving photographs, however this plan either did not seem to manifest during production or ended up on the cutting room floor when the film was released.

He has since went on to pursue a career in writing, directing, producing and editing amateur film productions.

His latest short film is Andys which was loosely based on Philip K. Dick's 1968 science fiction novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? (the same source material for Blade Runner) and featured fellow Harry Potter alum Benedict Clarke in a lead role, who is best known for playing the child version of Snape in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. The film is a little over 10 minutes in length and while it was shot and completed sometime in March 2012 it wasn't released online via Hopkins' official Vimeo until February 2014.

Behind the scenes

 * He is a former pupil of Kennet School and Newbury College in Berkshire.
 * In 2006-07, he studied BSc Film Technology Production at Stafford University.
 * His taste in music includes Muse, Placebo, Tenacious D, Led Zeppelin among others.
 * His favourite film is The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and is a fan of Danny Boyle.
 * Before being cast in the Potter films, he never read the books, only watched the films.