Sir Patrick Stewart is one of the few Star Trek leads to not direct a film in the sci-fi franchise. While his other colleagues like William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and Jonathan Frakes have helmed original films from their own series, Stewart has only stuck to directing a few episodes of The Next Generation and acting.
The actor mentioned that he was never interested in directing a film, even though the prospect had come up once. He mentioned that he did not like to think of scope and scale when it came to movies and preferred directing episodes over a film. He also mentioned that he hated watching his performances in the episodes he helmed.
Patrick Stewart Wanted To Cut Down On His Scenes In A Few Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes
Patrick Stewart played Captain Jean-Luc Picard for seven years. When he was cast as the new Captain of the franchise in Star Trek: The Next Generation, he was described as an unknown Shakespearean actor, which was not far from the truth. Stewart had only made a few noted appearances and had stuck to stage work.
However, things changed for him when he joined the Star Trek universe and he began a long journey with Picard. Lasting over three decades, Stewart had traveled with Picard over multiple shows and films and still feels that he has yet to receive a perfect end to his story. However, the star still has some issues with a few episodes in TNG.
Talking about the episodes he directed in the series, Stewart mentioned that he hated watching his own performance in those episodes and he constantly asked the writers to trim down his scenes. He said in the documentary Star Trek: The Captain’s Summit,
I felt I couldn’t play the captain and take on that responsibility. I don’t know how it was for you when we were directing episodes, I hated the days when I had to act, and furthermore, I couldn’t act in the episodes I directed. … I was so stiff in my own episodes and I tried to get them to cut my scenes down – they would do that anyway, they would give you an episode in which you were light.
He revealed that by default the episodes where a cast member was directing did not require their characters to do the heavy lifting.
Patrick Stewart Was Asked To Direct One Of The Star Trek Films
Spock actor Leonard Nimoy became the first Star Trek cast member to direct an original film with Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Since then, many other actors from the cast have gone behind the camera, with people like Jonathan Frakes thriving. William Shatner too went on to helm a film in the franchise.
However, Patrick Stewart remained in the actor’s seat and only helmed six episodes in the entire seven-season run of The Next Generation. The actor mentioned that he preferred the scale of an episode instead of a film, though he was reportedly offered the chance.
I haven’t directed a film because I’m probably the only one in this group here – I didn’t want to direct the films…I think it came up, I think sitting in [Paramount CEO] Sherry Lansing’s office one day talking about the next movie, it was suggested, but I killed it flat… I didn’t want to direct because of what I’d seen Jonathan [Frakes] do, particularly in his first movie.
The X-Men star mentioned that even during his time on the stage, he preferred not to direct as he had seen what great directors were able to pull off and did not want to tackle it.
Star Trek: The Next Generation is available to stream on Paramount+.
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