But while he might have wanted to star in Four Weddings at the time, not getting the part of Charles didn’t hinder Rickman’s career. Just a year after the release of Four Weddings, he starred as Colonel Brandon in Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning Sense and Sensibility, opposite Emma Thompson.

He would later reunite with Thompson in a different film written by Richard Curtis: 2003’s Love Actually, in which he played Harry, the deceitful husband of her character Karen. In February 2017, Thompson revealed that she had turned down the chance to resurrect Karen in a Love Actually sketch for Comic Relief – because she didn’t want to play the role without Rickman, who died of pancreatic cancer in early 2016.

“It’s too soon,” Thompson said.

“It’s absolutely right [that they’re making the sequel] because it’s supposed to be for Comic Relief, but there isn’t much comic relief in the loss of our dear friend really only just over a year ago.”

Images: Getty Images

The cast of Four Weddings and a Funeral could have looked very different