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For Patrick Stewart, Jean-Luc Picard is ‘the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me’

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As the august space voyager Jean-Luc Picard, Patrick Stewart commanded the Starship Enterprise on and off across seven seasons of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” four feature films, and, after a two-decade pause, three seasons of “Picard.” It’s a role he took only because he was assured by confidants that “The Next Generation,” which required a six-year contract, wouldn’t run a year, freeing him to return to England and the theater.

The final season of “ Picard ,” which concludes Thursday on Paramount+ , brings down the curtain on the character and, in bringing back most of the original show’s cast, “The Next Generation” saga as well. I spoke with Stewart, 82, a genial, funny, casually dapper gent, at the home he shares with his wife, singer Sunny Ozell — an old Spanish-style house on a leafy Los Angeles street, purchased just before the pandemic. (“I never thought I’d live in a house that had archways everywhere — no doors!” He counted six from where we were sitting.) Stewart had watched the finale that morning, and he had thoughts and more.

Did you fall in love with Shakespeare before you decided to become an actor?

No. Because “fall in love” doesn’t fit my experience. But something happened, and it happened the first time I held a copy of Shakespeare in my hand and read aloud. And that was because of an English teacher, Cecil Dormand; he had that wonderful ability of being intense and serious about the work and also entertaining and comical at times.

And one day he went around our classroom, dropping a little thin book onto [our desks] and said, “Right, ‘Merchant of Venice.’ This is William Shakespeare, and you’re reading so and so,” and finally, “Patrick, you’re reading Shylock. OK, Act 4, Scene 1 — you know, who you’re playing, start reading it.” So we all went [mimes students reading silently], and he said, “Not to yourselves, you idiots. This is life, it’s drama. It’s the real world. Aloud!” And I had a big speech — it’s the trial scene — I didn’t know what the hell I was saying. There were words I’d never encountered before. I didn’t understand it, but there was something that made my breathing deeper. I can only remember the physical sensation because I was 12 — it wasn’t comprehension, I just felt weight in myself, which I hadn’t felt before. And I was hooked.

Tell me about Murph Swander.

Murph Swander ! His real name was Homer. Homer D. Swander. In one sense, he’s why this huge event happened in my career and life. Murph came knocking on my dressing room at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, in Stratford-on-Avon. He was standing there with a bottle of malt whiskey in his hand, and he introduced himself and said, “I’m here with a group of young people from California and we’re coming to see your show tonight and we’d love you to come talk to us tomorrow.” I said, “I’m sorry, I don’t do that. My work is what I do onstage, not talking about it.” And he said, “Well, it would give the students a lot of pleasure if you came, and by the way, this is for you.” I couldn’t afford to drink single malt whiskey in those days, so I said, “All right. Ten o’clock tomorrow morning.” And I talked for the whole hour without taking a breath.

Jumping forward many years, he set up a sort of institution which was run by Murph and myself and another actor, may he rest in peace, called Tony Church, and we went to Santa Barbara [where Swander taught] and did a week of classes, and we’d go to UCLA and up to Santa Cruz — it was mostly the University of California circuit. I got to know some of the teachers very well. And one of them, professor David Rodes, a specialist in Shakespeare at UCLA, called me one day and said, “I’m giving a public lecture on campus, and if you wouldn’t mind reading some passages to illustrate it, I thought it would be great.” So I said, “Sure, of course.” And he said, “There’s $100 in it for you.” “Wow, yes, I’ll do that.”

So I did, and the next morning, I got a call from a man who told me he was my agent — I’d never met him, never talked to him before, but he was my agent in California — and he said, “I’ve got two questions for you. What the hell were you doing at UCLA last night and why would Gene Roddenberry want to see you this morning?” And I said, “Jean who? I don’t know her.” And he told me who Gene Roddenberry was.

What were your first impressions of him?

Impressions ... not good. What I learned many months later was that one of the producers of this new series, which I’d never heard of —

You’d never heard of “Star Trek” at all?

I may have heard of it. When my children were young, I used to race home from the theater in Stratford after the matinee so I could help with their supper and read them a story before racing back to do an evening performance. And they’d watch this show, which I used to occasionally see when I came home on Saturday afternoon, these guys wearing different color T-shirts. That’s all I knew.

So I was told that it was a new “Star Trek” series , and I went to Gene Roddenberry’s house and was greeted at the door by this man, Robert Justman, who had been at the university the previous night and had called Gene Roddenberry and said, “I think we found an actor we’ve got to have in the show.” When I arrived, there were two other men there, besides Gene and Robert, and nobody asked me sit down. We talked for about 10 minutes standing up, and then Gene said, “Thanks for coming over,” and goodbye. And I was back on the street, and I thought, “Bloody hell, what the heck was that about?”

Yes, Hollywood. So I called my agent and told him and he said, “Well, it’s funny you should say that because we’ve had another call and they want to see you again. “

Were there things that attracted you to the show, other than that it was work?

Nnnnnope . It was a style of work I never associated with, or even particularly watched when I was younger. Sci-fi didn’t have any interest for me. What was of interest was that it was on camera, it was in California, it was in Hollywood. My agent took me out to lunch and said, “I’ve got to walk you through the deal.” And when he told me some of the details I was totally disbelieving, what my salary per episode would be — incomprehensible. I couldn’t imagine that, nor indeed had I ever wanted it. I just loved the work I was doing, [playing] Shakespeare and other great dramatists.

Was there a point where it became emotionally satisfying, more than just a job?

It took a long time. I worked very, very hard. I wanted to do good work because I thought this might be my passport to Hollywood. Well, seven years later, we wrapped the series and then we did four movies. It was the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me.

More for better than for worse.

Unquestionably.

How different was it playing Picard in “Picard” ?

Oh, so different. I turned it down at first. And then I thought about the offer and decided I would do it, but I made two conditions. I didn’t want to wear a uniform, and it must not be a series that is fundamentally a sentimental reunion of “The Next Generation.” And they agreed to that. And I think the first “Next Generation” character who came on the show was Jonathan Frakes [as Will Riker] and then in Season 2, Marina Sirtis, who played Counselor Troi, was also in it. And to my great pleasure, I enjoyed having them back on the soundstage. We’ve all aged, all of us. I mean, Michael Dorn [who plays Worf], whose hair is white! And Jonathan with his grizzled gray beard. And me, of course, with my hollowed cheeks and exhausted appearance.

I think it was [producer] Alex Kurtzman who said, “Look, 20 years have passed, and in those 20 years, surely a lot has happened to you, Patrick. I know enough about your life to know there have been upheavals and changes. Surely, the same has happened to Jean-Luc Picard. What might those things be?” Well, I actually invented a whole story about those missing years; this may sound a little pretentious, but to create that past, which I assume will never, ever be known, was very intimate, and it influenced me when we began shooting “Picard.” Because I knew he had needs, longings, desires that were not being fulfilled. Disappointment that things had not gone the way he had hoped. Loneliness. Separation from these people he had loved and admired.

There are moments when I look at scenes in “Picard” and think, “Poor guy, [laughing] he looks terrible. He’s having such a bad time.” That wasn’t my intention, but that was what was being communicated. Anxiety, stress, irritation. I never yelled as Picard — I mean, I may have done — “ The line must be drawn here! ” [pronounced “hee-yah,” much-memed dialogue from the film “ Star Trek: First Contact ”], for which I was made fun of for decades. Actually, there was one like it in the last episode, and I thought, “At least, because there aren’t any more episodes, nobody will be making fun of me.” We made fun of one another a lot.

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Were there any kinds of scenes you particularly enjoyed or didn’t enjoy playing?

I have to admit that when we got into Season 5, 6 and 7 [of “The Next Generation”], there were days I wished I could be doing something different — when you do 178 episodes there’s bound to be repetition. And there were some things about “Picard” I was uncomfortable with, when I thought it was nudging its way toward being a reunion show. But there were not many. And the way the show has been directed, and lit, and staged, it’s so impressive. So many times I feel I’m watching a movie and not a TV series.

I looked forward to those scenes where Picard was not just anxious but actually frightened. Or confused. Or not knowing what to do. I got great satisfaction out of playing those things, because they allowed me to investigate, and release, aspects of Jean-Luc that had really never appeared in “Next Generation.”

What do you think you brought to the character that wasn’t necessarily on the page?

Well, I very quickly came to understand that “ Star Trek ” was not naturalistic television. And there was a sort of formality about being the captain. I was the captain of a starship, and I sat in the center seat, and I had assistants on either side of me and people running the ship down there in front, and it very much reminded me of numerous Shakespearean situations I’d been in onstage. And I thought, “That’s how I should regard this role, as if it were ‘Henry IV,’” which is about brave men. And very quickly I got to know the cast.

Does that family of actors reflect on the family of characters?

I think so, yes. Your use of the word family is in fact very accurate. That is what we became. If you add Whoopi Goldberg, who joined us in the second season, and John de Lancie, who came in as Q. We became so close, and that’s grown over the years.

Last night, I watched Episode 9of Season 3, and this morning, I watched the final episode. There had been a little conflict about how it should end, and the script we held when we started shooting had an ending I was thrilled by — I thought it was absolutely perfect — I can’t tell you what it was — and then when we were shooting, a problem occurred. It was the last day and, oh, it was getting so late and we had so much to do. And I said, “We can pick that up anytime, it’s only me involved.” We never did it. So the ending I loved was never filmed. Instead, it was one I wasn’t happy about — until this morning.

Until you saw it.

The impact that the final episode had on me was unexpected and almost overwhelming. When it finally finished, I had to call out for my wife and go give her a hug because I felt so deeply connected with what I’d watched.

The way the series ends is wonderful. And I so badly thought it was totally wrong when we shot it. But the director and producers, in particular Terry Matalas, who directed it, his instinct was absolutely right, and my instinct was only protective, whereas he was going deeper into what made me feel this morning the whole effect it had on my life and career, this show. And I promise you, if you’d come to see me at half past 8 this morning, you would have found me in my wife’s arms, wiping away the tears.

It has the necessary elements: a bar, Shakespeare and poker.

But it has something else, doesn’t it? It has feelings.

‘Star Trek: Picard’

Where: Paramount+ When: Any time Rating: TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under age 14)

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The Last Word: Patrick Stewart on Picard’s Evolution, Going Bald, Helping Veterans

By Sean Woods

Sir Patrick Stewart ’s return to the Star Trek universe and the role of the captain that made him famous in Picard has been greeted with widespread critical acclaim and unbridled nerd enthusiasm. Rolling Stone’ s Alan Sepinwall hailed the show and rightly called Stewart  “far and away the best actor to be a  Star Trek  regular.” When Rolling Stone caught up with Stewart, he was behaving as you might expect of a veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company: practicing lines for a return to the stage and “sitting in my house in the country in Oxfordshire, with a nice big fire going because it’s overcast and cold.”

“I’m grateful to have somewhere like this to hide away,” he adds. “It is  pretty British.”

During our Last Word interview with Stewart, we asked the actor to look back on his career, to share some life advice and reflect on why he was willing to take on a character he’d seemed to have left behind long ago. “The fact is, 18 years have passed since I last put on Captain Picard’s uniform,” he told Rolling Stone. “And the world we’re living in is a different place.”

What was the best advice you ever received? In terms of the work that I do, Duncan Ross, a brilliant, brilliant acting teacher, gave me quite a stern talking to. He said, “Patrick, the most important thing you have to understand is that you will never achieve success by ensuring against failure.” I thought I understood what he meant, I thought I got it: “Yes, yes, you’ve got to take risks. You’ve got to be brave, you’ve got to gamble.” It was more than 30 years of being an actor before I really internally understood what he meant. Now, it’s become a habit of mine, before I make an entrance onstage every night, to say out loud but quietly, “I don’t give a fuck!” And I go work. And it works! It takes away anxiety and stress and worry, and all of those stupid wasteful things that don’t help you at all.

Were you hesitant to go back to your Star Trek character, Picard? Hesitant? I turned it down. It was history. It was behind me and there was nothing more to be said about Jean Luc Picard or his life. When I met the producers I was 77. I’m 79 now, and there is a ticking clock, and there’s still a lot I want to do, but I had a lot of needs and longings than more Star Trek. But I have to admit, the script more than caught my attention. It was not returning to the world that I had been in before.

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How so? The fact is, 18 years have passed since I last put on Captain Picard’s uniform. And the world we’re living in is a different place. I’ve just been listening to the 5 o’clock news here [in England] and what’s happening with Brexit. Of course, both our countries are in the same kind of predicament in that we have a totally unsuitable person running the country. I use, as an example, the film Logan . No longer was Charles Xavier the sensitive, compassionate intellectual sitting in his wheelchair. He was a totally broken person. When I thought about if I was to consider Star Trek, I used Logan as an illustration — we continued the fundamental themes of the X-Men movies, and the principle characters were still there, but they were in a different world. Their lives had changed, there had been dramas and horror and tragedies, and things were now grim and perilous .

What was growing up in post-war England like? Oh, Lord, I was talking about this the other day. I was born in 1940, and my father was already away at the war. He was part of the British Expeditionary Force that attacked France at the end of 1939, and it was a disaster. The German panzer divisions just massacred them. My father was not a great one for telling wartime anecdotes. But he did tell me about one evening: He was with a whole group of men who were trying to get back to the coast and save themselves, when they heard Winston Churchill on the radio announce that “today we have removed the last members of the British Expeditionary Force from the battlefields in France.” Well, Winston, you got it wrong, because there were certainly many hundred still there. My father was one of them. He got on the last boat out. So, this had a profound effect on him. He suffered seriously from PTSD. This was to affect him for the rest of his life. The only treatment that you got in those days was somebody would yell at you, if you were in the army, to pull yourself together and act like a man. So when he came home, he was not a happy man. He was discontented, restless, frustrated, and unwell. But that was not recognized at the time, and it made many aspects of my own life unpleasant.

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And he was abusive to you and your mother? He was, yes. He was a weekend alcoholic, which meant that from 10 o’clock on Friday evening, for the next 48 hours you had to be very careful what you did and said. But he would be drunk and he would be violent, and that continued for a number of years. It gradually lessened, partly because he realized that my brother and I were getting bigger. The sad thing for me is, I didn’t know that he was suffering and needed therapy and all of those things that so many returning veterans need today. For years, I’d given my father a very bad press, but I became a patron of a wonderful organization called Refuge, which is an organization dedicated to providing a safe house for women and their children who had violent husbands. But then, about five years ago, I learned about my father and his PTSD. I felt ashamed that I had used his name as a symbol for violence and anger, not knowing that he couldn’t help himself. I don’t defend him for the violence. Violence is never an option. Recently, I was invited to become an active member of a group called Combat Stress , and they focus on helping veterans with PTSD. So, I now try to balance things out, doing my Refuge work for my mother and Combat Stress for my father. I could do nothing for them when I was little, when I was young. Nothing. I would put my body between my father and my mother as I got bigger, and try to defy him, but it didn’t often work. In their names, now I’m able to, with the time that I have available, do more for them.

You were almost a journalist at some point, and then you chose acting over journalism. I was a cub reporter. Strings were pulled. I had a very, very modest education. We left school at 15 in those days, and my local newspaper took me on. I was given a district of my own to cover, which I really enjoyed. I threw myself into the job, aware that I was very, very lucky to have a job like that. But I’d become massively involved with amateur theatricals. I loved it. I loved going to rehearsals. For one thing, it got me out of my house. But, there was a problem, which was that all my amateur acting interfered badly with my work as a journalist. I got into trouble. I was dishonest. I made things up. I invented stuff. Yes, yes, yes … Because to me, being at the rehearsal was more important than attending a council meeting. Finally, I was found out, when the huge mill in my town caught fire one evening, and someone called the newspaper and the editor said, “No, don’t worry, Patrick’s right next door.” Well, I wasn’t there. I was in the rehearsal room. I was found out and got hauled before the editor, who gave me an ultimatum: “Give up all this amateur acting, this ridiculous playing games that you’re doing, and concentrate on doing your job, for which we’re paying properly.” I didn’t like being talked to like that, so I went upstairs and I packed up my typewriter and I left. I went home and said, “I’m going to be an actor.” And they said, “How are you going to do that?” And I said, “I’ve no idea. I’m going to find out.” And I did.

How did you cope with going bald so young? Was it hard? Yes, it was. I got very depressed about it because my hair fell out very quickly. I was 19. By the time I was 20, it was gone. I spent a lot of money — more than I could afford — on a really great hairpiece, a wig. And I would wear it to auditions. And usually what they asked for in the theater in those days were two audition pieces, which you could choose yourself. So I would do one as a character piece, wearing my hairpiece. And then I would very quickly take it off and do a totally different character, looking like a different actor. And I would say to them, “Hey, two actors for the price of one. You can’t turn this down, can you?” The worst part about it was I thought it meant my romantic life was over, would never happen, because what woman would like to go out with a bald 19-year-old? Very few. Whereas these days, nowadays, men with these fabulous heads of hair shave it. That’s fine, but I thought, “That’s it. Romance is dead for me, so just throw yourself into your work, Patrick. Make the best of it.”

You became famous later in life. What do you think it would have done to you if you’d been famous as a younger person? I think I might have been a nightmare. The thing is, I got a chance to observe, because I worked for 15 months with Vivien Leigh, for example. We toured the world in three productions with her playing the leading role. I got to watch Vivien and many other brilliant leading actors. I used them as my benchmark. All of these people were beautifully behaved. I was madly in love with Vivien Leigh. She was always so kind to me, although I was actually the least important member of the company. I saw how you have a choice about how you behave and what kind of work you can do. And I used that information to try to do the best possible work I could.

You revived your one-man Christmas Carol show in New York this holiday season. The whole story is really a man looking back on his life. I wonder how you look back, and what that story taught you? I am loving working on it again because it’s 16 or 17 years since I last performed this. I’m not the person I was when I created this role over 20 years ago, and I’m seeing the story very differently. And, of course, because what has happened in our world, I’m seeing it much more as a political document than as a lovely, sweet, adorable Christmas story. It’s full of bitter, savage attacks on the inequalities of life, particularly in London. Dickens was very sensitive to this and wrote brilliantly about it: When Jacob Marley comes to visit Scrooge that first night, and Marley is telling him how he ruined his life by being only obsessed with money, and Scrooge says to him, “But you were always a good man of business, Jacob.” And Marley says, “Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business.” I never made quite enough of that before, because that’s what it’s about. It’s not just about being rich or poor, but it’s about, if you have resources, what do you do with them? This is about you making them available to people who have less, and you do all that you can to care for them. That’s not a spirit that’s abroad much in our world today, is it?

You are involved with the campaign for death with dignity and assisted suicide. What brought it to you and why is it important to you? I’d always been intrigued about what they call doctor-assisted dying. When I was in my sixties, a friend of mine told me an appalling story. I knew that his wife had died. I didn’t know how. She was seriously ill with cancer, incurable cancer, and in extraordinary pain. He told me how he was living alone with his wife, looking after her, and one night he went out to walk the dog. So while he was gone, she put a plastic bag around her head and knotted it under her chin, and was dead when he got back. This story shocked me so profoundly that I decided to investigate more. I came across Dignity in Dying , and they’re a fantastic organization who campaign for a change in British law that would permit doctor-assisted dying, but only with the strictest, most severe conditions attached to this — because people are concerned about families wanting to get rid of some old person or somebody who has money and they want to inherit it, all that kind of thing. What we argue for is signed documents from two doctors that this person is terminally ill, will die within six months, and is of sound mind to make this decision themselves, and is under no pressure. If someone is in profound misery, and is a person of faith, the way in which I believe their faith can be celebrated is by giving them what they most need: a pain-free ending. It will give other people a choice to end their life in the way in which they wish to see it end. Of course, I put myself in their shoes, often. I’m 79, and I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.

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Patrick Stewart On Returning As Picard

"It's been from day one a delight and rewarding."

Patrick Stewart talks about his return to beloved character, Jean-Luc Picard, in Star Trek: Picard .

Star Trek: Picard streams on Paramount+ in the United States,  in Canada on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave, and on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories.

Patrick Stewart discusses how 'Star Trek' creator Gene Roddenberry 'was never comfortable with me'

In his seven-decade career, Patrick Stewart has starred as Scrooge and Macbeth on Broadway, from the tragic King Lear to King Richard in Mel Brooks' 1993 farce "Robin Hood: Men in Tights."

Of course, there's  Professor Charles Xavier in the "X-Men" film series and even the glorious turd of a movie role,  Poop Emoji in 2017's "The Emoji Movie." 

But mostly, when his global legions of fans think of Stewart, he's bellowing "Engage!" as USS Enterprise Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the  iconic "Star Trek: The Next Generation" role that made him a household name in 1987 at 46 and carried through seven indelible seasons, more than 170 episodes and four movies.

Stewart, 82, returns to his retired Starfleet commander in the third and final season of the  Paramount+ series "Star Trek: Picard" (streaming weekly on Thursdays). 

After retiring to his wine vineyard, Picard is pulled back for a secret mission, posing as a visiting dignitary aboard the USS Titan.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Stewart tells USA TODAY he's proud to return to the role that's had the greatest impact on his formidable career. "There's never been anything to compete with 'Star Trek,' in terms of interest in my work," says Stewart. "'X-Men,' yes. But it didn't have the exposure of 'Star Trek' for seven years. That's a lot."

More from Stewart (interview edited and condensed for clarity): 

More: 'Star Trek' shocker: Patrick Stewart's Picard has a son!

Question: Looking back, your 1980-era first Picard discussions with late "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry went terribly. What happened?

Answer: My first meeting in Gene's home did not go well. It lasted for 10 minutes and Gene made it clear it was over. I said goodbye. Apparently, after I left, Gene asked, 'Who the hell's idea was it to invite him?' But (producers) Robert Justman and Rick Berman convinced Gene to accept me as Picard. He was never comfortable with me.

"Star Trek: Picard" Season 3 is a "Next Generation" reunion with Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Worf (Michael Dorn) and Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), to name a few.

It's not a reunion; it's an emergency. This is the final hope we have with these people because the whole planet – the whole galaxy – is under threat. Profoundly serious. I was intrigued by that. And I was finally able to persuade ("Picard" executive producer Terry Matalas) that I would not wear the uniform. It's uniform-looking, but no badges. It's not his life anymore.

We briefly see that classic "Next Generation" uniform in "Picard." Did you enjoy pulling it out?

Immensely. I have my uniform in my London home in my wardrobe. And one day someone will inherit it. (Third wife Sunny Ozell, 44)  is much younger than me, she's half my age. She and her parents were devoted to "Star Trek." She might be the one.

Was it strange to not sit in the ship's captain's chair?

I had another chair to the side, never the captain's. I couldn't wait to be on the sidelines. Jean-Luc is embracing a new life.

You and Frakes have your characters de-aged digitally in one scene. How did you feel about that?

It made me uncomfortable. There was some conversation of giving me hair. That would be a good comic scene, not something we could take seriously. But the actual scene was really beautiful to play. Jon and I are a family. Some work relationships can be foul, yet creatively terrific. I once had my hands around an actor's throat. It was one of the actors I'd most admired all my life. He was a nightmare person.

The de-aging is not obvious on you. How do you stay looking so amazing?

I played soccer into my 40s and play tennis with a court at home. I love exercising, running and walking. That might play a part. I was obsessed with squash until I hurt my shoulder. I'm even thinking of playing that game – what's it called? – pickleball. Smaller court and you don't crash into walls. But, you know, I really don't know what's happened with time. I remember vividly my 40th birthday. But between then and now, it's all hazy.

And we're calling this the final season of "Picard," but you've said there's an "open door" to return, what would it take?

A challenge for Picard and "Star Trek" we've never seen before. That may not be attractive to studios. But we've touched on so much with "Picard" that I feel good. If nothing happens, it's been a very valuable way to wind up this experience.

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‘Star Trek: Picard’s Patrick Stewart On How He Finally Allowed More Of Himself To Inform His Portrayal Of His Iconic Starfleet Hero — Contenders TV

By Scott Huver

Scott Huver

Guest Author

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After over three decades of embodying Starfleet’s legendary Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: Picard star Sir Patrick Stewart says he’s finally learned to embrace letting more of himself bleed over into his much-beloved character.

“My approach to my work has undergone significant changes in the last few years,” Stewart explained during Deadline’s Contenders Television panel for the series. “And it has changed and developed because I’ve come to trust Patrick Stewart more than I used to and find that my instincts, my impulses, my feelings and emotions are authentic.”

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The veteran actor said that, after decades of resistance, he now accepts that “Jean-Luc Picard is Patrick Stewart, and I am him. There is no separation anymore. I used my life continually when we were shooting Season Two and Three of Picard , and I’m no longer afraid of doing that, which at one time in my career I would have been. But not anymore. I feel I have something to say, and I can only say it through the performances that I give.”

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In terms of his approach to his role, Stewart said the first seeds of possibility were planted when executive producer Alex Kurtzman, the guiding figure of the current Star Trek television franchise, first suggested that Picard’s evolution might mirror Stewart’s own.

“He said ‘It’s over 30 years since you were last Jean-Luc Picard,” Stewart revealed. “You’ve probably changed somewhat in that time in those 30 years: different opinions, different feelings, maybe even ways of working. Well,’ he said, ‘maybe that’s happened to Jean-Luc as well’…I was caught up by that. How do I, how do I be convincing that 25-30 years have passed, and this is not the same Jean-Luc that we all came to know and, some of us, to love.”

Stewart also discussed taking on a more hands-on role behind the scenes than he’d previously held on his prior Star Trek: The Next Generation series and films. “I was involved up to here,” he said. “I had, for the first time, an executive co-producer title attached to my name, and I was consulted. People were very, very generous and we talked about everything.”

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Ultimately, the actor helped chart an unexpected course for the role that would inform three seasons of the Paramount+ streaming series that would challenge both the character and himself. “Picard had to face a reality about his childhood and his home life and his parents that he had never ever faced before. Why? Because he was afraid, and an afraid Jean-Luc is a pretty rare creature, but to have that undercurrent of unexpected emotion running through Season 2, and coming to a climax of course in Season 3, was very satisfying.”

Stewart also revealed that shooting Season 3 immediately following Season 2, he’d already shared scenes with his longtime TNG cast mates, who were recently revealed to be joining him in the forthcoming final season.

“I’m with Gates [McFadden] and Marina [Sirtis] and Jonathan [Frakes] and Brent [Spiner] and LeVar [Burton] and Michael [Dorn], and those days have been wonderful,” he reported. “I think it’s hard for the directors because we fool about so much! And it was always like that – I mean, you’ve probably heard that famous thing that I said it during our first season when somebody said, ‘Patrick, we’ve got to have some fun,’ because I was complaining about the disruptions and the noise, and I said ‘We are not here to have fun!’”

Check out the panel video above.

Deadline Contenders Television is sponsored by  Apple TV+ ,  Eyepetizer ,  Final Draft ,  Los Siete Misterios  and  Michter’s . Partners include  Desalto ,  Film AlUla ,  Four Seasons Resort Maui ,  Jason Mizrahi Design ,  ModMD ,  The American Pavilion , and  Tidelli .

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Watch CBS News

Patrick Stewart on saying goodbye to Star Trek: "It changed my life"

By Analisa Novak

February 16, 2023 / 11:39 AM EST / CBS News

It was more than three decades ago when actor Patrick Stewart first took the reign of the USS Enterprise and helped shoot the character of Captain Jean-Luc Picard into transcendental fame. 

Stewart had already found success acting in some English theater plays prior to entering the Star Trek franchise. He said that when he was first offered the role for the revival of the series, he thought that it wouldn't last a season. But taking the role would send him on his own star-filled journey. 

"It changed my life. There was nothing in my life that was not affected," Stewart said. 

He entered the franchise as Patrick Stewart but by the end of season two, he said he didn't know where Stewart began and Picard ended as the two identities became lockstepped with each other. 

As the series took off, Stewart attended a science fiction convention where he got a standing ovation from thousands of fans of the Star Trek franchise. 

He said that it was at this moment that he realized the impact that the American series had on "Trekkies" across the world as the franchise embodied diversity and equality within its roles and introduced topics that were at the time unfamiliar to new audiences.

"I saw the impact that Star Trek could have on people and their lives, the diversity of the show, its belief in honesty, fair play, equality, all those elements which kind of get a little sketchy these days," he said.  

Stewart left the show in 1994 but would return for brief roles in the different franchise movies that were released in the years after. 

He continued to make a name for himself in Hollywood, gaining further fame when he portrayed Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men series. 

But it wasn't long until he would return to the Starfleet in 2020 for the spinoff series: "Star Trek: Picard" on Paramount+. The series follows Picard into new chapters of his life.  

The show is now entering its third and final season and like Picard, Stewart is looking forward to new adventures by returning to familiar territory.   

"There is a movie, and that's possible in the future. But principally, I think the moment has come when I'm going to return to the live theatre, to the stage. In fact, there are a couple of Shakespeare roles I've never played," he said.

Analisa Novak is a content producer for CBS News and the Emmy Award-winning "CBS Mornings." Based in Chicago, she specializes in covering live events and exclusive interviews for the show. Analisa is a United States Army veteran and holds a master's degree in strategic communication from Quinnipiac University.

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‘picard’ star patrick stewart shares season 2 regret and explains why he sounds slightly different in final episodes.

"The fact is, during the seven years of shooting 'TNG,' I truly began to understand that I didn't know where Patrick Stewart left off and Jean-Luc Picard began," the distinguished actor tells THR.

By Ryan Parker

Ryan Parker

Former Senior Reporter

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[Warning: This story contains spoilers for the season two finale of Star Trek: Picard . ] 

As Sir Patrick Stewart watched the season two finale of Star Trek: Picard , he became awash in emotion.

The distinguished, iconic actor, who has played Jean-Luc Picard since the 1987 Star Trek: The Next Generation pilot “Encounter at Farpoint,” realized for him and Q actor John de Lancie, the adventure they began 30 years prior had officially concluded. And the moment was perfect.

Of course, that was not the only scene in “Farewell” that struck a major chord with the Picard star as he viewed the finale episode in the sophomore season of the Paramount+ series, but the final exchange between the two left an indelible impression, a sensation different from that which came on while filming the moment.

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In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on the eve of the season two finale, Stewart explored a number of topics that arose from the series, and explained why the experience of making both the second and upcoming third and final seasons, while tremendously rewarding, was also extremely taxing. Stewart also addressed the mental health aspect of this season and why it was personal to him.

I must start by saying this season was extraordinary. You all did a tremendous job with an action-packed — and quite emotional — roller-coaster Star Trek season.

Thank you. It was tough. You know, we were set up to go with season two when the pandemic broke out, so we were shut down and sidelined. About after eight months, I was called up and told, “Look, here’s the plan: We’ve lost a lot of time and we need to record both seasons two and three back-to-back.” Normally, there is a long break between a season’s shooting. But we wrapped season two at about 7 p.m. and started season three at 7 a.m. the next morning. We worked for about 14 months, continually. It was thrilling and exciting much of the time, but it was also for me — who I would imagine is more than double the age of anybody else in this series — tough. ( Laughs .)

There were a number of deeply beautiful and profound moments this season for Picard, especially in the finale. I loved that final chat with Picard and Q. Was that overwhelming, you two starting this adventure in “Farpoint?”

I watched the episode for the first time this morning, and I was so deeply moved by those scenes with John de Lancie and the content of those scenes because he was making himself, as a character, vulnerable. John can bring complexity to the simplest line. I mean that as a compliment. I’m envious. His whole attitude and the things he was saying and his gentleness and sensitivity, it choked me up.

And then when we came to the moment when [Borg Queen] Alison Pill took off her mask. We had this curious angle shot, rather low into her face, looking up into her eyes. I’m afraid I began to weep, it was so touching. Because, of course, it meant that I was saying goodbye to John and to Alison, who are both wonderful actors.

Mental health has been forefront and deeply impactful this season. I’m curious if Picard’s trauma over his mother’s death changed your perception of this character, whom you’ve known for 30 years. We, the viewers, have a better understanding now of this complicated man. How was this new information for you to digest and perform?

My only regret is that once Jean-Luc revealed those hidden facts about his childhood to us, I almost wished we could immediately put him back on the bridge of the Enterprise to hear and see what the impact this revelation had on him. But we couldn’t do that.

There are so many emotional complexities in this whole series that we did not investigate much in Next Generation . I grew up in a violent home and over the years, thanks to lots of very expensive American therapy, it’s something that I think I’ve come to terms with. But the harm that it could do while it was being compressed and kept out and kept back and not acknowledged, it was very dark. I realized this was the same with Jean-Luc.

Now, if you watched episodes nine and 10, you will hear that my voice sounds different. Whenever smoke is used onstage, I have to make a protest because — I know it’s not poisonous, it’s not going to harm — it gets onto the vocal cords. I particularly suffer badly from this. And it made me a little hoarse. So, at first, we were going to rerecord a lot of what I said, but I urged [executive producer] Akiva [Goldsman] and my fellow producers not to do that because the weakness in my voice was reflecting the weakness in the character.

Jean-Luc putting the key back behind the brick knowing his younger self would find it, hence his trauma would take place, reminded me of the TNG episode “Tapestry,” where, after getting stabbed in the heart, he laughs, knowing his timeline is secured. Did you have glimpses of those moments during this series, those callbacks you actually experienced?

The fact is, during the seven years of shooting TNG , I truly began to understand that I didn’t know where Patrick Stewart left off and Jean-Luc Picard began. Over those first few years they just merged, and I found that I was, as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, becoming more and more like Patrick Stewart. So when you get these moments of a character’s situation or his actions or his risks and dangers, those are something you recognize as a person.

There is an exercise in acting called “sense memory” that I was taught at my drama school when I was 17. The basic premise of sense memory is that no experience is ever wasted on an actor. Such as, I recently had injections in my hands, going into the knuckles because I have arthritis. Eight injections. And the first one was tolerable, I thought, “I can live with this.” And then the doctor put the second needle in, and I screamed! I don’t think I’ve ever screamed as an adult before. Of course, they had to do it six more times after that. And each time I told myself, “Patrick, sense memory. Remember every part of this, how it feels, how you reacted to it.”

One of my all-time favorite TNG moments is the final shot, when Jean-Luc finally joins his command crew for a game of poker.

Do you happen to remember the final line?

“Five-card stud, nothing wild. And the sky’s the limit.”

Yes! ( Claps hands. )

Yeah, I’m kind of a huge fan. Anyway, I bring it up because I would love to hear how it feels, after 30 years, to still be playing in the cosmic sandbox with the amazing TNG actors, as we know several of whom will appear on Picard next season.

We have been bonded together for years and years in different ways and for different reasons. I adore them, and I love them all deeply. What they brought into my life in 1987 was rich and complex. They all are as committed as any group of actors I’ve ever worked with. And yes, we had a lot of fun, and we joked. But nevertheless, we were a serious group of actors, and I was so proud of the work that we did.

Interview edited for length and clarity. 

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‘Star Trek: Picard’: Patrick Stewart on Why He Returned to the Final Frontier

By Daniel Holloway

Daniel Holloway

Executive Editor, TV

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Next to an armchair in Patrick Stewart ’s living room in Brooklyn sits a small table, and on it a black three-ring binder. The 79-year-old actor leans in and clasps his hands when recounting his upbringing in the North of England. He stands and paces when a subject such as Brexit or Donald Trump aggravates him. All the while, he touches the binder over and over again — tapping it, thumbing through it, waving it around.

Inside is the script for Stewart’s one-man stage adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” which he began performing three decades ago, around the same time he originated the role of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” It’s early December, and next week Stewart, for the first time in 16 years, will once again perform “A Christmas Carol” — in which he portrays more than 30 characters. The run: just two nights at a 99-seat theater on 54th Street.

“This is just stupid, doing something like this,” Stewart says, sitting forward in a midcentury lounge chair, holding the binder up in one hand as if it were Exhibit A. “It’s so insane. I could have found other things to do that were not so enormous as this. But I chose it. Sixteen years have passed, and the world is a different place from when I last did it. F—, it’s different.”

It sure is. And Stewart believes that makes the piece more timely than ever. He characterizes “A Christmas Carol” as a “profoundly angry attack” on a society that treats marginalized people as subhuman. “Forget about Tiny Tim and all that stuff,” he says. “It’s a political document.”

So it’s no surprise that, after a long absence, Stewart has revisited the story at the end of the second decade of this thus-far miserable millennium. His motivations — to challenge himself, to speak to injustice, to give himself the sense of calm in anxious times that acting has provided since he was a grammar-school boy in England — are the same ones that prompted him to return to the role that made him one of the most beloved actors alive: Picard.

On Jan. 23, CBS All Access will debut “ Star Trek: Picard ,” a series in which Stewart reprises the thoughtful, cultured, bald starship captain he played for seven seasons on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and in a string of four feature films that ended in 2002. The new show is different from its predecessor in nearly every respect — texture, tone, format, production value, even the likelihood of characters dropping an f-bomb. That’s all by design. Stewart’s design.

“He is uninterested in repeating himself,” says Alex Kurtzman, the show’s creator and executive producer, and the mastermind behind CBS’ effort to not just revive “Star Trek” but also transform it into a vast narrative universe in the Marvel mold. “Everything he does is filled with innate integrity. He fights for the things he believes in. And he’s very willing to collaborate once you’re on the same wavelength.”

Lo-fi and a little quaint by today’s standards, “The Next Generation” was the most successful of any “Star Trek” television series. (The original, starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, was poorly rated and canceled by NBC after three seasons.) The show raked in Emmy nominations, minted money for Paramount Television and grew a massive following attracted to the unlikely figure of Stewart’s Picard — a Frenchman (with a posh English accent) who sips tea, reads the classics and prizes duty and honor and friendship. “The Next Generation” presented a humanist future in which issues like poverty, race and class have long been sorted out, and conflicts are more often resolved through negotiation and problem-solving than at the point of a phaser pistol.

Stewart had no desire to go there again.

“I think what we’re trying to say is important,” he says. “The world of ‘Next Generation’ doesn’t exist anymore. It’s different. Nothing is really safe. Nothing is really secure.”

“I think what we’re trying to say is important. The world of ‘Next Generation’ doesn’t exist anymore.” Patrick Stewart

Science fiction — a genre Stewart had little use for before he became one of its major figures — has long been a way to address the anxieties of the nonfictional present. That Stewart would want to use it thusly at a time when the compassion of the U.S. and Britain for the world’s neediest is at a nadir should be expected, given who he is.

Stewart grew up poor. His family’s house in Mirfield, a town of little more than 10,000 people in the West Riding of Yorkshire, was a “one-up-one-down” — a room downstairs and one upstairs, connected by a stone staircase. The home had no heat aside from an open fireplace, and no hot water. The toilet was separate from the house.

“The outside toilet was my study, reading room, private place,” Stewart says. He would sit there, reading by candlelight — first American authors, such as Hemingway. Later, Russians. And then Shakespeare.

His mother was a weaver who took social pleasure from her work despite the difficult conditions. His father was a laborer and weekend alcoholic who physically abused Stewart’s mother. He was also a war hero. In 2012, Stewart appeared on the U.K. television program “Who Do You Think You Are?” and learned that his father had served as the top noncommissioned officer in his parachute regiment in World War II and likely suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. (In recent years, Stewart has worked with Amnesty International on issues of domestic violence against women and with a U.K. veterans’ mental health organization, Combat Stress.) Sitting in his Brooklyn home, he recalls the taping of the show and a British military official telling him that his father “must have been an extraordinary man.” Stewart pauses, and his eyes fill with tears.

“This was news to me,” he says of his father’s military service. After the war, an officer with connections in London put the elder Stewart up for the position of second doorman at The Dorchester in London. The job came with a family residence in the hotel. But his father turned it down.

“Often I’ve reflected on how different my life would have been if, at the age of 5, I’d moved to Park Lane,” Stewart says. “But he didn’t go. And he should have gone, because he would have done the job brilliantly. From time to time I go to The Dorchester, and I will say hello and shake hands with the doorman.”

When Stewart was 12 years old, an English teacher named Cecil Dormand introduced him to Shakespeare. “He started handing out these copies of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ all around the classroom, gave one to me and said, ‘Stewart, you’re Shylock. All right, Act 4, Scene 1.’” The first time Stewart held Shakespeare in his hands, he was asked to read the “pound of flesh” scene aloud.

Dormand recruited Stewart to play the role of a schoolboy in a local performance of John Dighton’s “The Happiest Days of Your Life.”

“Nothing bad could happen to me for the two and a half hours that we were doing the play, because I became somebody else,” Stewart says. “I wasn’t Patrick Stewart anymore, from Camm Lane, Mirfield. I was Hopcroft Minor in a boys’ private school. The very first thing that brought me into this business was the feeling that I was safe. And that feeling has never gone away.”

Later, Stewart had a brief stint as a newspaper reporter. But he kept performing in local theater and soon was pursuing acting full time. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966, and stayed for nearly two decades.

“He plays very strong characters,” actor Ian McKellen says of Stewart. “And he looks formidable. He looks reliable. He’s the guy who you want to have in a difficult situation. ‘Captain Picard is here, don’t you worry.’ But inside that strength is a tenderness, which responds to love and affection, and which gives out the same thing to people who are closest to him.”

Stewart and McKellen became friends while working on the “X-Men” movies, and have appeared together onstage performing Beckett and Pinter. (McKellen also officiated Stewart’s wedding to singer-songwriter Sunny Ozell in 2013.) Decades ago, before the two actors were close, they ran into one another on the streets of London.

“He had had a distinguished career doing Shakespeare, and he was a leading young actor here doing the classics,” McKellen says. “He said he had been asked to go do ‘Star Trek,’ and I said, ‘Do be very careful. You’re having such a wonderful career here; to stop it to go off and do a telly that might not work is a very dangerous step.’ Thank goodness he didn’t take my advice.”

Stewart didn’t particularly want the job. But a U.S. television series represented “more money than I’d ever seen in my life.” And his agent assured him that the show would tank, freeing him to return to London.

“Everything he does is filled with innate integrity. He fights for the things he believes in.” Alex Kurtzman, “Star Trek: Picard” creator

Stewart’s path to the captain’s chair of the USS Enterprise contained one towering obstacle, however. “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry was famously resistant to Stewart’s casting. The British actor was, to his mind, too old and too bald to succeed Shatner’s swaggering James T. Kirk.

Stewart claims that Roddenberry circulated a memo at Paramount saying, “I do not want to hear Patrick Stewart’s name mentioned ever again in connection with ‘Next Generation.’”

But Roddenberry acquiesced to Stewart’s advocates, producers Robert Justman and Rick Berman. Roddenberry died in 1991, while “The Next Generation” was still on the air. “God, I wish he had not died when he did,” Stewart says. “I have a lot of respect for Gene, and I have to say also, gratitude.” He laughs and recalls how Roddenberry would visit the set once a week. “I know more than once, I caught him sitting in his director’s chair looking at me, and I knew he was thinking, ‘How the f— did we end up with this guy?’”

Stewart’s classically trained actor brain wanted guidance from Roddenberry on who Picard was. Roddenberry responded by giving him a Horatio Hornblower novel. “I could never get him to talk about it,” Stewart says. “Gene talked about golf a lot, and the Bel-Air Country Club.”

By the end of the first season, Stewart had become invested in the show. He had bonded with his American cast mates, whose looser approach to working he initially bristled at. He had also attended his first “Star Trek” convention, where, he says, “I felt like Sting.”

“The Next Generation” turned “Star Trek” from a single story about Shatner’s Kirk and Nimoy’s Spock into a franchise. In addition to the four features, it spawned two spin-offs, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Star Trek: Voyager.”

It also presaged an era in which speculative fiction would make for premium television (“Game of Thrones,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Watchmen”). “The Next Generation” was the first syndicated program nominated for a best drama series Emmy. An episode written by Morgan Gendel, “The Inner Light,” in which a probe seizes Picard’s mind and causes him to experience an entire lifetime as a member of an alien society, became the first television episode in 25 years to win science fiction’s top literary honor, the Hugo Award.

Stewart describes himself as “very proud” of “The Next Generation,” and like other members of the cast regrets that Paramount ended the show when it did, in a drive to take the Enterprise crew into theaters. But he found himself typecast afterward. He recalls meeting with an unnamed major filmmaker who told him bluntly, “Why would I want Captain Picard in my movie?”

Stewart soon became the linchpin of another franchise, “X-Men,” playing Professor Charles Xavier. He continued to do major work onstage. And his feature and television roles alternated between those that leaned into his classical training and patriarchal image (Captain Ahab in an adaptation of “Moby Dick” for USA Network, a gay Manhattanite living through the height of the AIDS epidemic in Christopher Ashley’s “Jeffrey”) and against it (a white supremacist leader in Jeremy Saulnier’s “Green Room,” a pill-popping cable-news jockey in Jonathan Ames and Seth MacFarlane’s Starz comedy “Blunt Talk”). It wasn’t until his last “X-Men” exploit, starring in 2017 with Hugh Jackman in director James Mangold’s “Logan,” that he imagined a return to Picard could be desirable.

“Hugh and I were so thrilled when the last thing we did for ‘X-Men’ was ‘Logan,’” he says. “It was the best ‘X-Men’ experience we both had, because we were the same characters but their world had been blown apart.” He adds, “‘Next Generation’ didn’t end like that. In fact, our last movie, ‘Nemesis,’ was pretty weak.”

Released in 2002, “Nemesis” lost money for Paramount. But J.J. Abrams’ 2009 film reimagining Kirk and Spock, now played by Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, cleared a path for CBS to revive the franchise for TV. Kurtzman and Bryan Fuller’s “Star Trek: Discovery,” a prequel to the original series, would become the cornerstone of streaming service CBS All Access.

Stewart had resisted past overtures from “Star Trek”-curious producers. When he met in his kitchen with Kurtzman and writers Michael Chabon and Akiva Goldsman in 2017, he did so as a courtesy.

“I explained to them all those elements of ‘Next Generation’ which belong in ‘Next Generation,’ and why I didn’t want to go near them again,” he says. “But they talked about it in such an interesting way. And they talked for a long time.” Stewart told the producers no, thank you, and sent them on their way. Then he had an immediate change of heart. He told his agent to ask Kurtzman to put his ideas in writing. Forty-eight hours later, Kurtzman sent over a more-than-30-page packet outlining a possible Picard series.

“Picard” finds its hero living in near-isolation on a very un-cosmic French vineyard. He is retired and estranged from Starfleet, the interstellar navy to which he devoted most of his life. He’s haunted by a pair of catastrophes, one personal, the other societal — the death of his android colleague Lt. Cmdr. Data (as seen in “Nemesis”) and a refugee crisis spawned by the destruction of the planet Romulus (as seen in Abrams’ “Star Trek”). When those two seemingly disparate strands of his life cross, Picard returns to action, this time without the backing of a Starfleet whose moral center has shifted.

Roddenberry believed that in the future, human beings would advance to the point that they would, essentially, not have conflict with one another. Their biggest challenges would be external.

Stewart, also an exec producer on “Picard,” insists, “We are remaining very faithful to Gene Roddenberry’s notion of what the future might be like.” But rigid adherence to that notion is clearly not what he’s here for.

“In a way, the world of ‘Next Generation’ had been too perfect and too protected,” he says. “It was the Enterprise. It was a safe world of respect and communication and care and, sometimes, fun.” In “Picard,” the Federation — a union of planets bonded by shared democratic values — has taken an isolationist turn. The new show, Stewart says, “was me responding to the world of Brexit and Trump and feeling, ‘Why hasn’t the Federation changed? Why hasn’t Starfleet changed?’ Maybe they’re not as reliable and trustworthy as we all thought.”

Real-world parallels are not hard to identify. It is one week before the parliamentary election that will see British prime minister and Brexit hardliner Boris Johnson’s Conservatives win a staggering victory over their Labour rivals. And Stewart is not feeling optimistic about the near future.

“I’m not sure which one of us is in the most trouble,” he says of Britain and the United States. “I think it’s actually the U.K. I think we’re f—ed, completely f—ed.” He points to studies predicting decades-long economic damage inflicted by the country’s looming withdrawal from the European Union. Of the U.S., he says, “There is a time limit to your f—ed state, which is four years away.” He expresses hope that “the United States that has given us the Trump administration” can change, but adds, “He will likely get reelected.”

These are not the opinions of someone who, on the cusp of 80, is disengaging from the world. “Next Generation” alum Jonathan Frakes, who reprises his role as Cmdr. William Riker in “Picard” and directed two episodes of the new show’s first season, believes that age has only heightened Stewart’s powers.

“Patrick has become sillier as he’s gotten older,” Frakes says. “His sense of humor is wild. His ability to be playful and more vulnerable makes him and his work more layered. He’s 79 and has a very full résumé, so his confidence in his work allows him, I think, to be confident in his personal life. And he’s at ease. It’s a great ease to be with him. Anybody who’s in this business as an actor could look to that career and say, ‘That’s a success.’”

In the week ahead, Stewart will not only perform “A Christmas Carol” for the first time in more than a decade and a half, he’ll also entertain Chabon and Goldsman at his home and hear their pitch for “Picard” Season 2. He says of Mangold: “I can’t wait to work with James again.” He expresses an enthusiasm for his recent turn in Elizabeth Banks’ “Charlie’s Angels” reboot (“Great tongue-in-cheek fun!”) that is undamaged by the photon-torpedo hit the movie took at the box office.

“I’ve been doing some really interesting work for the last few years,” Stewart says. He thinks back to 1987, when “The Next Generation” premiered. “There was not a corner of my life, public, private, that wasn’t touched by this sudden transformation. And I so enjoyed it. ‘X-Men,’ ‘Star Trek’ and then, having come back 18 months ago to do ‘Picard,’ I’ve just …”

He pauses and places a hand on the black binder. “God, this is going to be difficult to say. It’s wonderful work, but it’s not enough. The challenge is great, but I want something bigger.”

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Battlestar galactica’s james callis is picard’s star trek father.

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All 9 Battlestar Galactica 2004 Actors Who Also Appeared In Star Trek

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• Star Trek: Picard season 2 explores Jean-Luc's childhood trauma with his father Maurice, shedding new light on their complex relationship.
• James Callis portrays Maurice Picard, Jean-Luc's father, in Star Trek: Picard, adding depth to the character's backstory.
• Battlestar Galactica's Callis, known for his role as Dr. Gaius Baltar, is now part of two iconic science fiction franchises.

In Star Trek: Picard season 2, Battlestar Galactica's James Callis portrayed Maurice Picard, the father of Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). Picking up twenty years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis , Star Trek: Picard saw Jean-Luc get pulled into more galaxy-saving adventures with friends both new and old. In Picard season 2, Picard was forced to confront his childhood trauma thanks to interference from Q (John de Lancie). Throughout season 2, Picard experienced flashbacks to his childhood that helped him recontextualize the complex relationship between his parents, Yvette (Madeline Wise) and Maurice Picard.

A reimagining of NBC's 1978 series of the same name, 2004's Battlestar Galactica was created by screenwriter and producer Ronald D. Moore, who had also worked on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and co-wrote Star Trek Generations and Star Trek: First Contact. Battlestar Galactica followed the remnants of a distant human civilization as they searched for a fabled colony known as Earth after suffering a devastating attack from advanced androids known as Cylons. James Callis starred in Battlestar Galactica as Dr. Gaius Baltar, an arrogant scientist who unwittingly enabled the Cylons' attack.

A new Battlestar Galactica series set in the same universe as the 2004 show is currently in the works at Peacock, with Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail as executive producer.

The original Battlestar Galactica featured many Star Trek actors throughout the 1970s, and Ronald D. Moore's 2004 reboot kept up this tradition.

Battlestar Galactica’s James Callis Is Jean-Luc’s Father In Star Trek: Picard

Picard season 2 forced jean-luc to see his father in a new light..

In Star Trek: Picard season 2 , episode 7, "Monster," Jean-Luc Picard relives painful memories from his past as he lies unconscious after being struck by a car. The dreaming Jean-Luc is confronted by his father, Maurice, wearing a Starfleet uniform , and Admiral Picard's buried memories of his father chasing the young Jean-Luc and his mother around their house resurface. While Picard remembered his father as being abusive, Maurice was actually trying to care for Jean-Luc's mentally ill mother, Yvette, in the only way he knew how. Maurice tried to protect the young Jean-Luc and do what he could for Yvette, but she refused to seek outside help.

Later, when Admiral Picard revisits his childhood home in La Barre, France, he experiences more flashbacks, remembering a traumatic hide-and-seek game he once played with his mother in the tunnels beneath their home. Suffering from a psychotic break, Yvette tried to take Jean-Luc away, prompting Maurice to lock his wife in her room for her own safety. Yvette later took her own life, for which Picard blamed both himself and his father. Maurice and Jean-Luc were never particularly close, and they became estranged after Picard joined Starfleet rather than tend to his family's vineyards.

Clive Church played an elderly Maurice Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6's "Tapestry" decades before James Callis was cast in the role for Star Trek: Picard .

James Callis’ Acting Career & Roles

Callis is most known for battlestar galactica, but he has appeared in several other popular series..

English actor James Callis began his acting career in the late 1990s, appearing in several British television shows and mini-series. His debut film role came in 2001's Bridget Jones's Diary, in which he portrayed Bridget Jones's best friend Tom, a role he reprised in the two sequel films. Callis is most remembered for portraying Dr. Gaius Baltar on Battlestar Galactica , a role that earned him an award for Best Supporting Actor on Television at the 2005 Saturn Awards. Throughout Battlestar Galatica's run, Baltar wore many different hats, from scientist to villain to President to cult leader, but one thing he never was, was boring.

James Callis portrayed Athan Cole in Syfy's 12 Monkeys created by Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas.

In another role with a Star Trek connection, James Callis portrayed Athan Cole in Syfy's 12 Monkeys created by Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas. Callis also appeared in episodes of Numb3rs, Eureka, CSI, The Musketeers, and MacGyver, and co-starred as Simon Hardwick in the shortlived CBS drama Blood & Treasure. In one of his most recent roles, he provides the voice for Alucard in Netflix's animated adaptation of Castlevania and its sequel, Castlevania: Nocturne . James Callis may have only guest starred in Star Trek: Picard, but he's now part of two of science fiction's most iconic franchises.

Star Trek: Picard is available to stream on Paramount+.

Battlestar Galactica is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Star Trek: Picard

After starring in Star Trek: The Next Generation for seven seasons and various other Star Trek projects, Patrick Stewart is back as Jean-Luc Picard. Star Trek: Picard focuses on a retired Picard who is living on his family vineyard as he struggles to cope with the death of Data and the destruction of Romulus. But before too long, Picard is pulled back into the action. The series also brings back fan-favorite characters from the Star Trek franchise, such as Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), Worf (Michael Dorn), and William Riker (Jonathan Frakes).

Battlestar Galactica

The 2004 science fiction TV series Battlestar Galactica is a reimagining of the 1978 series of the same title. Created by Glen A. Larson, the original Battlestar Galactica features a fictional human civilization living in a distant star system called the Twelve Colonies. They are in constant battle against a cybernetic race called the Cylons, who want to exterminate the human race. A massive attack was launched, and only those who made it onboard the Battlestar Galactica and its fleet survived. They navigate space in search of the mythical 13th colony called Earth. Battlestar Galactica is under the command of President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) and Colonial Fleet Officer, Admiral William Adama (Edward James Olmos).

Patrick Stewart

• Born July 13 , 1940 · Mirfield, Yorkshire, England, UK
• Birth name Patrick Stewart
• Height 5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
• Sir Patrick Stewart was born in Mirfield, Yorkshire, England, to Gladys (Barrowclough), a textile worker and weaver, and Alfred Stewart, who was in the army. He was a member of various local drama groups from about age 12. He left school at age 15 to work as a junior reporter on a local paper; he quit when his editor told him he was spending too much time at the theatre and not enough working. Stewart spent a year as a furniture salesman, saving cash to attend drama school. He was accepted by Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 1957. He made his professional debut in 1959 in the repertory theatre in Lincoln; he worked at the Manchester Library Theatre and a tour around the world with the Old Vic Company followed in the early 1960s. Stewart joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966, to begin his 27-year association. Following a spell with the Royal National Theatre in the mid 1980s, he went to Los Angeles, California to star on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) , which ran from 1987-1994, playing the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. After the series ended, Stewart reprised his role for a string of successful Star Trek films: Star Trek: Generations (1994) , Star Trek: First Contact (1996) , Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) , and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) . Stewart continues to work on the stage and in various films. He was awarded Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in the 2010 Queen's New Year's Honours List for his services to drama. - IMDb Mini Biography By: International Audience Alliance for Patrick Stewart (IAAPS)
• Spouses Sunny Ozell (September 7, 2013 - present) Wendy Neuss (August 25, 2000 - 2003) (divorced) Sheila Falconer (March 3, 1966 - 1990) (divorced, 2 children)
• Children Sophie Stewart Daniel Stewart
• Parents Gladys Barrowclough Alfred Stewart
• Relatives Trevor Stewart (Sibling) Geoffrey Stewart (Sibling)
• Strong authoritative voice and dedicated Shakespearean bearing
• Roles in classical plays and Shakespearean dramas
• Frequently plays leaders or authority figures
• Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
• Wry self-deprecating sense of humor
• According to Brent Spiner , Stewart largely affected the way Americans pronounce the word "data". On Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) , the name of Spiner's character, Data, was intended to be pronounced "dat-uh", as was commonly used in American English as the time, but Patrick Stewart's used the British pronunciation "day-tah" during the first table read and that was subsequently used for the series. Spiner credits Stewart's pronunciation, coupled with the popularity of the series, for making "day-tah" the more commonly used pronunciation in American English vernacular.
• In episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) , when he got up, he had a habit of tugging on the uniform where it was creased. Jonathan Frakes jokingly called this the Picard Maneuver, and the name stuck.
• When (presumably) nominated to complete the Ice Bucket Challenge (which involves filming yourself having a bucket of ice tipped over you or pay a forfeit to charity), Stewart released a wordless video in which he wrote out a cheque, then took two ice cubes from a bucket, put them in a glass of whisky, and toasted the camera.
• In 2013, when Sir Patrick Stewart married singer/songwriter Sunny Ozell , it was Sir Ian McKellen who they asked to officiate the ceremony. Friends Stewart and McKellen have co-starred in many projects over the years, perhaps most notably as nemeses Charles Xavier and Magneto in the X-Men movies.
• During the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) , he was so convinced that he was going to be fired from the series that he did not unpack his bags for six weeks.
• [on whether or not he is typecast by audiences as Jean-Luc Picard] I think perhaps when I first walk in front of the camera they'll say, "Aha, there, ah, yeah, Jean-Luc, we recognize him despite that charming little mustache." I believe that audiences are really smart enough to let go of that pretty quickly, but that's also my job as an actor to persuade them that, you know, Jean-Luc Picard is left behind and this is someone entirely different... I mean, I'm an actor dedicated to transforming myself and to creating original pieces of work, and I will not accept that my life is going to be forever connected to Jean-Luc Picard in the roles that I play. On the other hand, I'm absolutely delighted that he's still in my life. Actually, I think my appearance in The Simpsons and an appearance that I did on Sesame Street - in praise of the letter B - were perhaps the two most distinguished bits of work that I've done in the United States. [on his love for Beavis and Butt-Head (1993) ] Oh, yes, my passion for them remains the same... I think it's one of the most original and brilliant pieces of television that we've seen in recent years. The dialogue is delightful. I simply sit and giggle and laugh all the time.
• [on preparing for the role of Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men (2000) ] I read a lot of comic books.
• I was brought up in a very poor and very violent household. I spent much of my childhood being afraid.
• I would like to see us get this place right first before we have the arrogance to put significantly flawed civilizations out onto other planets, even though they may be utterly uninhabited.
• [on his initial belief that he would be fired from Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) ] When it first started, I didn't think that I would survive beyond the pilot. I did not unpack; I didn't see the point. I thought the producers would come to their senses and realize they'd made a grave error in casting me. I was certain that I'd be on my way back to London... Eventually, it became clear to me that not only wasn't I going to go away, the series wasn't going to go away. I stayed, and have relished every moment.
• Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) - $14,000,000
• Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) - $9,500,000
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996) - $5,000,000
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) - $100,000 per episode
• Wild Geese II (1985) - 2,000 pounds

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Making It So: A Memoir Hardcover – October 3, 2023

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• Print length 480 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Gallery Books
• Publication date October 3, 2023
• Dimensions 6 x 1.8 x 9 inches
• ISBN-10 1982167734
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Gallery Books (October 3, 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 480 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1982167734
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1982167738
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.51 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.8 x 9 inches
• #21 in Television Performer Biographies
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The New Star Trek Movie Is A Prequel – But Will It Rewrite The Franchise Timeline?

It was announced today in the Hollywood Reporter that Simon Kinberg is taking over the development of the new "Star Trek" feature film, currently working its way through pre-production at Paramount. This new film will be the fourth to be connected to the Kelvin timeline of "Star Trek," a timeline which started with the events of J.J. Abrams' 2009 "Star Trek" film. As of this writing, Toby Haynes ("Andor") is slated to direct, while Seth Grahame-Smith ("Dark Shadows," "The LEGO Batman Movie") has signed on to write. Kinberg is a notable Hollywood player who wrote "X-Men: The Last Stand," "X-Men: Days of Future Past," "X-Men: Apocalypse," and "Dark Phoenix" (among many others) and who produced "The New Mutants," "Deadpool," "Logan," "X-Men: First Class," "Cinderella," "The Martian," and "Elysium" (among many others). He is a franchise guy through-and-through, and Paramount likely wanted a new producer with high-profile experience.

It has been reported that the new "Star Trek" movie will, to quote the Hollywood Reporter, "be set decades before the events of the 2009 movie that was directed J.J. Abrams , likely around modern times." They added that it "is said to involve the creation of the Starfleet and humankind's first contact with alien life." 

These declarations will have some Trekkies' minds at yellow alert. As we all know, the Kelvin universe was an alternate timeline created by the time-travel shenanigans of a vengeful Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana). The timeline diverged when Nero appeared through a time portal in front of the U.S.S. Kelvin ... right when James T. Kirk was being born. Trekkies will happily leap in and point out that Kirk was born in 2233 ... but that First Contact — as dramatized in "Star Trek: First Contact" — took place in 2063. 

Is Trek history being entirely re-written?

The timeline of Star Trek

To offer a brief timeline of events in the "Star Trek" universe, humanity was facing down some harrowing times in the late 20th century, and the world broke out into a series of devastating wars. First, there were the Eugenics Wars, in which tyrannical genetically selected supermen became global dictators. Audiences know about the Eugenics Wars through Khan (Ricardo Montalban), one of said dictators. Then there was the Second Civil War, talked about in a time-travel episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," which exacerbated poverty and misery on Earth, followed finally by World War III, which lasted from 2026 to 2053. World War III left humanity scattered and hopeless. 

This was all before humanity had discovered faster-than-light travel, and trekking through the stars hadn't yet begun. 

The statement that the new Trek movie will take place "likely around modern times" would need to place it prior to the above conflicts. It's worth noting that the second season of "Star Trek: Picard" was also a time travel story that took Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his friends back in time to 2024, prior to the Eugenics Wars. So it seems that part of Trek lore might have been covered already. We will have to see if "Star Trek 4" will take place before or after "Picard." 

But that timeline couldn't incorporate First Contact. 

It wouldn't be until 2063 that Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell) would invent faster-than-light travel. The maiden voyage of his ship, the Phoenix, would attract a Vulcan vessel coincidentally passing by Earth. The Vulcans would land and initiate First Contact, ushering a new phase of peace on Earth. It was with First Contact that Trek's optimistic future would begin.

Will Kinberg's new film time-shift First Contact backward?

Is First Contact being time-shifted?

Continuing with Trek's timeline, First Contact allowed humanity to realize the errors of their warlike ways, and begin rebuilding after World War III, now with the Vulcans' help. This period would take the better part of a century, and humanity wouldn't be able to launch their own ship — the Enterprise — until the year 2151. The first adventures of the first Enterprise were dramatized in "Star Trek: Enterprise." 

Kinberg's film could conceivably take place during the century after First Contact, but before the launch of the first Enterprise, although that timeframe would preclude star trekking; according to "Enterprise," the Vulcans were insistent that humans remain on Earth for 100 years , technologically and philosophically preparing themselves for encountering new life and new civilizations. "Enterprise" would indeed fall in line with "the creation of Starfleet," as stated in the Hollywood Reporter. Starfleet was formed before the launch of the Enterprise, sometime in the 2130s.

It's the "decades before" part that might have some Trekkies looking at the statement a little sideways. Since the Kelvin timeline didn't begin until 2233, the formation of Starfleet would be a full century before the 2009 film, not decades. And First Contact would be almost two centuries before the 2009 film. 

Paramount, as of this writing, has not released any additional details about the upcoming film's plot, so we can only speculate as to when it might take place. Will it be a flashback or a time travel plot? But here's a daring thought: Kinberg's new film may openly rewrite Trek continuity and time-shift First Contact to earlier in humanity's timeline.

Gene Roddenberry's penance era

When looking back at the 1960s, when Gene Roddenberry first created "Star Trek," the world was a tumultuous place. Roddenberry looked out the window and saw war, violence, intolerance, and bigotry. He invented "Star Trek" as a reaction to all that, envisioning a future when war was over (because we wanted it), money had been eliminated, and bigotry was dead. But to achieve this utopia, humanity needed to hit a "low point" first. As such, the timeline of Trek required Earth to nearly destroy itself before it could have a moment of clarity. 

If Kinberg aims to time-shift First Contact and the formation of Starfleet to the modern era, it would become a fascinating speculation indeed. If "Star Trek" began without the Roddenberrian moment of clarity, would utopia still be achieved? What if we had starships and access to Vulcans today in 2024? Would the utopia of "Star Trek" be kickstarted 200 years early, or would we humans, still presumably warlike, merely struggle through the Eugenics Wars/Second Civil War/World War III up in space instead of on the ground? 

And if Kinberg's goal is to shift "Star Trek" history so dramatically, it would mean that he is deliberately erasing the Kelvin timeline. Remember that before the Kelvin timeline split, "Star Trek" was identical in both timelines. "Star Trek: Enterprise" still played itself out as we saw in the 2001 to 2005 TV series, and references to "Enterprise" were made liberally throughout 2016's "Star Trek Beyond," the second sequel to "Star Trek" (2009). 

If Kinberg does set the action of his new film in the modern day, "Enterprise" would be retconned entirely ... as would all of "Star Trek." 

That's even more daring than the parallel timeline from Abrams' film.

Time will tell.

“We’re not stuck in a formula for entertainment”: Years Before Infinity War, Patrick Stewart Revealed the 1 Rule for Marvel to Beat Superhero Fatigue

S ir Patrick Stewart is a veteran actor who is known worldwide for portraying the role of Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men  franchise for several years. Starring as the character for the first time alongside Ian McKellen’s Magneto back in 2000’s X-Men , Stewart placed himself in the hearts of millions of fans worldwide.

Playing the role for so many years, the veteran actor had some iconic things to say in an interview. From the rapid changes in Hollywood to the “superhero fatigue” that people are experiencing now, Stewart’s answer came true as he predicted what the genre might look like in 10 years!

Sir Patrick Stewart Knew The Answer 10 Years Back!

It is the claim of millions of fans worldwide that the MCU has become “too woke” . Although we cannot say whether these statements are justified or not, a change is visible in the MCU and Marvel Studios that was absent 10 years ago.

With changing times and improvements in VFX, the MCU has gone above and beyond CGI (and also ruined it in Thor: Love and Thunder ). The point is, the MCU is changing alongside people’s thoughts and feelings and has become more ‘inclusive’ with respect to the current world.

Patrick Stewart: One Marvel Star “Wouldn’t engage with any of us on a social level”, Made it Difficult to Communicate in $67M Star Trek Bomb

Some might say that this is a good strategy, while others clamor for the return of the old MCU. Sir Patrick Stewart, who portrayed the role of Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men franchise, seems to agree with the former side. Back in 2015, Stewart sat for an interview with Time Magazine . During the discussion, the veteran actor had this to say about changing times:

People will always go and see them. We’ve had a significant presence of science-fiction and fantasy on screens, and some of it has been extraordinarily good, and I include the X-Men series.

He further mentioned the ‘superhero fatigue’ that people had been experiencing, and Patrick Stewart’s solution was to go with the flow.

Fashions change, tastes change, and something else will come along. It’s what makes the lives of us who work in the business so interesting. We’re not stuck in a formula for entertainment.

During the interview, the reporter mentioned that Stewart’s two most famous roles (Captain Pickard and Professor Xavier) had been saintly in nature. However, it seems that Stewart’s first job was not so peaceful.

“Am I only going to get cast as geriatrics from now on?”: The Marvel Movie Even Patrick Stewart Was Terrified of

Stating that he was just 15 years old when he became a journalist for a local newspaper, Sir Patrick Stewart had some harrowing things to say about working there!

Patrick Stewart Saw Three Dead Bodies And Quit –Journalism!

Fresh out of school, Sir Patrick Stewart was just  “15 and two days old”   when he picked up a journalism job at a local newspaper. Being the youngest member of the office, Stewart covered births, deaths, and, marriages to print for the newspaper.

As the interview progressed, the veteran actor talked about his journalism days. Stating that since he used to cover deaths, he came across multiple dead bodies.

“I never looked this good”: Patrick Stewart Was Creeped Out After Watching James McAvoy as Professor X in Some Scenes

So when such an incident happened, the Logan  actor revealed that he had to quit his job before lunchtime!

One morning I saw three dead bodies before lunch and when I went back to the newsroom and said, “I don’t think I can do this.”

Stewart got his first on-stage performance in 1959 after which, the actor’s fame did not stop growing. Starring in iconic movies and series, Patrick Stewart has found worldwide fame and love over the years.

The actor is allegedly rumored to reprise his role of Professor Charles Xavier in the upcoming MCU film  Deadpool & Wolverine.  However, there’s no confirmed evidence of the same.

Deadpool & Wolverine  is slated for a release date of 26 July 2024 in theaters across the world.

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Patrick Stewart says his time on 'Star Trek' felt like a ministry

Rachel Martin

Legendary actor Patrick Stewart talks about his time on Star Trek and the supernatural experiences that have shaped his spirituality.

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