I mean, language fascinates me anyway, and different words have different energies and you can change the whole drive of a sentence.

Rickman is describing an actor’s sensitivity to diction: words are not interchangeable units but carry distinct connotations, rhythms, and emotional “charge.” By calling them “energies,” he points to how a single substitution can alter a line’s intention—softening it, sharpening it, making it comic, threatening, intimate, or distant. The remark also reflects his reputation for meticulous vocal and textual work, especially in theatre and in roles where precision of tone is central. More broadly, it suggests a writerly view of performance: acting is not only feeling but also craft, in which meaning is engineered through careful choices in language and delivery.