Twenty-five years ago, Justin Long starred in his first movie, Galaxy Quest, alongside the late, great Alan Rickman.
To celebrate the film’s anniversary, the actor posted two photos from the start of his career. He poses with Rickman and Jeremy Howard in the first one and with Sam Rockwell in the second. The Goosebumps actor also shared a lengthy caption, looking back at that time in his life.
“It was my first time on a movie set, my first time in L.A., one of my first plane rides,” he wrote in part. “This photo of me, Alan Rickman and Jeremy Howard (who played my friend in the movie and could blow sh*t up w his mind in Accepted) was taken at a party that Alan threw for everyone in the cast and crew.”
Long explained that he had formed an idea of who the Harry Potter star might be based on his performances as villains in Die Hard and Robin Hood.
“My experience with him as a person was the exact opposite of that … he was so kind, generous, and yes, dry (VERY dry) but in such a playful spirited way,” Long continued. “I think about him often, and when I look back on that experience a quarter century later, one of the greatest gifts that came from it was getting to know and work with an actor like Alan.”
The Live Free or Die Hard star also praised his Galaxy Quest co-stars, Rockwell and Rickman, for being “rare” actors in the industry. He then directed his followers to check out his podcast appearance on Happy Sad Confused with Rockwell.
While speaking with podcast host Josh Horowitz, Long echoed the sentiments from his Instagram post, noting he was surprised to see how “playful” Rickman was.
“You develop a sense, like an idea of somebody, somebody’s personality,” he said. “And I thought he was going to be like a very serious British … and … he was dancing harder than anyone at that party.”
The Jeepers Creepers star also recalled a time in his career when he joined a play that Rickman was departing, and he gave Long a card with a “very nice” message written inside and the words “Fuck you” written in cursive on the front of the card in tiny letters.