Last year, Alan Rickman teamed up with a tortoise for a very important role.
Specifically, this tortoise.
The goal was to create a viral video to raise money for refugees living in the U.K.
The 30-second video features a teeny-tiny tortoise eating a strawberry — that’s it. While the miniature star of the screen chomps away, Rickman — who you may know from his roles as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series and so much else — provides a voice-over explaining how this all works.
So how does it work anyway? It’s simple, really. You watch the video, and that’s it.
The more views the video gets, the more advertising dollars its creator — OneClickGiving, a charity created by students at Oxford University — makes from YouTube.
OneClickGiving then donates the ad revenue to Refugee Council and Save the Children. You are helping them raise that money — all just by watching a cute little video. Make sense?
Rickman had died at the age of 69. Many are honoring his memory.
There’ll be no shortage of tributes circling around the Internet, with fans in mourning and reflection, remembering him for the big roles he played on the stage and screen during his lifetime.
But just one video lets you help the refugees in the process.
We will miss his voice, deep and filled with soul. Through his roles we discovered what it truly means to be invested in your passion. In one of his most famous roles as Severus Snape we discovered the power of loving somebody so deeply and how love of this kind is beyond time. Through the actions of this man we discovered a piece of the goodness the human spirit holds. Thank you Alan Rickman for the fruits you left to the world. You will be missed good man.
