Late actor Sir Patrick Stewart‘s close friend, Sir Ian McKellen, once warned him against playing one of his most iconic characters.
During a 2020 interview on SiriusXM, Stewart noted that he and McKellen both had roots in the theater and were actors at the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company. According to Stewart, who died at the age of 86 on October 28, McKellen told him not to star as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994), as it could affect his career as a stage actor.
“One person who said, ‘You mustn’t do this. This is a mistake. Your career in the English theater is too important. It is really taking off. You’re becoming an important stage actor. Don’t do it.’ And that was my dear and beloved friend, Sir Ian McKellen,” said Stewart.
He clarified that McKellen has said he misjudged the situation.
“He has since then said to me, ‘Of course I was wrong,'” said Stewart in the 2020 interview.
He also noted that he and McKellen ended up playing the friends-turned-adversaries, Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto, in the X-Men film franchise.
“Then another franchise brought us together when we both found ourselves at 20th Century Fox filming the first X-Men movie,” said Stewart.
Patrick Stewart Said He Used His Background as a Shakespearean Actor When He First Started Playing Picard
During a 2023 episode of Conan O’Brien‘s podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, Stewart said he used his background as a Shakespearean actor when he was first playing Picard. He clarified that he ended up not being too pleased with his Shakespearean take on the Enterprise-D captain.
“When I came to review the first season of Next Generation, I wasn’t altogether happy with the work I’d done. I thought it was too internal, too restrained, too solitary, too unconnected with the others, so I resolved that from the start of the second season. I would begin to open him up,” said Stewart.
He went on to say that his more open portrayal of Picard “continued” throughout the show’s final six seasons, the films Star Trek Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), and the three-season series, Picard (2020-2023).
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