--- title: TV: Alan Rickman and Jimmy Fallon on 'The Tonight Show' description: It'll change your entire perception of Defense Against the Dark Arts. canonical: https://time.com/3927603/alan-rickman-jimmy-fallon/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-18T22:02:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:21:15.714Z og:title: See What Professor Snape Sounds Like After Inhaling Helium og:description: It'll change your entire perception of Defense Against the Dark Arts og:url: https://time.com/3927603/alan-rickman-jimmy-fallon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca7acaa85adff494/6988554ca988ca71986b31b4/477504840-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Alan Rickman on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon' on June 17, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See What Professor Snape Sounds Like After Inhaling Helium twitter:description: It'll change your entire perception of Defense Against the Dark Arts twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca7acaa85adff494/6988554ca988ca71986b31b4/477504840-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See What Professor Snape Sounds Like After Inhaling Helium > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Megan Daley / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Megan Daley / Entertainment Weekly Jun 18, 2015 10:02 PM UTC  Alan Rickman on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon' on June 17, 2015. Alan Rickman on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon' on June 17, 2015. Douglas Gorenstein—NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images by [Megan Daley / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Megan Daley / Entertainment Weekly Jun 18, 2015 10:02 PM UTC Professor Snape, a.k.a. Alan Rickman, struck fear in the hearts of Hogwarts’ students in the [_Harry Potter_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brDO1mx4SUo)films, but there’s nothing more magical than hearing Rickman’s voice influenced by several mouthfuls of helium. Back in 2013, Jimmy Fallon and Benedict Cumberbatch did their very best impressions of the actor during what they called a “[Rickman-Off](http://www.buzzfeed.com/mackenziekruvant/benedict-cumberbatch-and-jimmy-fallon-have-an-alan-rickman-o#.hjvOB4Pm3).” So, when Rickman himself appeared as a guest on _The Tonight Show_ on Wednesday night, he was ready to confront Fallon – armed with two “truth-telling” helium-filled balloons. “This is really like a James Bond show, this really is,” Fallon said. “I’m very sorry you were offended, I’m very sorry. And welcome to the show.” The two laughed their way through the remainder of the interview, with Fallon finally getting the actor to say “Harry Potter” after he’d taken a few puffs from his helium balloon. Watch the full interview below. _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/06/18/alan-rickman-jimmy-fallon-helium) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3927603/alan-rickman-jimmy-fallon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3927603/alan-rickman-jimmy-fallon/"},"headline":"See What Professor Snape Sounds Like After Inhaling Helium","datePublished":"2015-06-18T22:02:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:21:15.714Z","description":"It'll change your entire perception of Defense Against the Dark Arts","url":"https://time.com/3927603/alan-rickman-jimmy-fallon/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","jimmy fallon","Harry Potter","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca7acaa85adff494/6988554ca988ca71986b31b4/477504840-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan Daley / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca7acaa85adff494/6988554ca988ca71986b31b4/477504840-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Alan Rickman on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon' on June 17, 2015.","caption":"Alan Rickman on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon' on June 17, 2015.","creditText":"Douglas Gorenstein—NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3927603/alan-rickman-jimmy-fallon/","name":"See What Professor Snape Sounds Like After Inhaling Helium"}}]}] ```