Sir Patrick Stewart has had an incredibly venerated and celebrated career over his 38-year-long stint in the film and television industry. However, before his Hollywood debut, the actor had accumulated decades of experience on the stage while working at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and National Theatre.
It was, quite understandably, not a smooth transition for Sir Patrick Stewart during the initial years of his Hollywood career. The wildly different attitude of his American castmates presented to him as a culture shock, one that he was neither ready to accept nor adapt to.
However, as the years went by, the X-Men legend realized something had to give, preferably on his end, if he wanted to continue down the road in Hollywood.
Sir Patrick Stewart verified a rumor for Henry Cavill
Star Trek: The Original Series birthed a faction of sci-fi lovers whose lives were forever changed by the show’s revolutionary and original concept. Its spin-off, Star Trek: The Next Generation proved to be even more successful, launching an era of television defined by Starfleet, interstellar voyages, and adventures into strange new worlds.
Sir Patrick Stewart, who began his Hollywood journey as a Captain on the USS Enterprise, carried on his tenure as Jean-Luc Picard in the 2020 drama, Star Trek: Picard. But his role was not the only thing he carried over from the 1987 series to the 2020 one.
There exists an infamous behind-the-scenes story about Sir Patrick Stewart that details him storming off-set after being annoyed by his co-stars for having fun while working. Although he later learned to loosen up and join in on the fun, the story still remains an oft-whispered legend about the venerated stage actor.
In an Actors on Actors interview for Variety, Henry Cavill, a die-hard fan of the universe, recalls the story and asks whether his experience with opening up on set and learning to have fun also influenced the making of Star Trek: Picard since there was a lot more “warmth” and “lightness” in his character:
Yes. I’m not a writer, so although I was allowed as a co-execcutive producer in the writers’ room, I would just sit there with my mouth open, listening to these great ideas that would flash backwards and forwards across the table… The only things, I think, that I actually contributed in terms of dialogue, were jokes! […] I though it was time to have some jokes with the character, because there was a lot of grimness surrounding him otherwise.
Although it doesn’t present as that big an accomplishment for Sir Patrick Stewart to insert a few jokes here and there in the series, it was a big leap in terms of his personal evolution as an actor, who never believed in the idea of having fun on set as a productive endeavor for an actor. Cavill found great joy in this revelation shared by the Star Trek veteran.
Sir Patrick Stewart shared his infamous TNG story
For a long time, the fans have been engrossed in the sci-fi genre revolutionized by such franchises as Star Wars and Star Trek. Although the two remain wildly similar in their core concept of interstellar travels, their respective fan base maintains that the two could not be more different.
The history behind the making of these franchises varies wildly, too. The behind-the-scenes stories constitute a lore that die-hard fans of these franchises are well-versed in. One of these stories features Sir Patrick Stewart having an off-set meltdown at the caricaturish behavior of his fellow co-stars on the Star Trek: The Next Generation set.
In his autobiography, Making It So: A Memoir, the actor recounted the entire incident with emotion and clarity [via The Hollywood Reporter]:
I could be a severe bastard. My experiences at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre had been intense and serious … On the TNG set, I grew angry with the conduct of my peers, and that’s when I called that meeting in which I lectured the cast for goofing off and responded to Denise Crosby’s, ‘We’ve got to have some fun sometimes, Patrick’ comment by saying, ‘We are not here, Denise, to have fun.’
His remarks later led Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner to approach Sir Patrick Stewart in his trailer later that day and share an important piece of advice that he carried with him throughout his entire career.
[Spiner] and Jonathan acknowledged that yes, there was too much goofing around and that it needed to be dialed back. But they also made it clear how off-putting it was — and not a case study in good leadership — for me to try to resolve the matter by lecturing and scolding the cast. I had failed to read the room, imposing RSC behavior on people accustomed to the ways of episodic television — which was, after all, what we were shooting.
In the later seasons, Stewart grew more comfortable with the ways of Hollywood, learning eventually to have fun while working, which led to creating beautiful memories and lifelong friendships with co-stars like Sir Ian McKellen.
Star Trek: Picard is currently streaming on Paramount+.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire