--- 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See What Professor Snape Sounds Like After Inhaling Helium 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) TV: Alan Rickman and Jimmy Fallon on 'The Tonight Show' ```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"}}]}] ```