geoff: Patrick Stewart cut his
acting teeth in the Ute are
taking on numerous roles and
Shakespeare and other classics
and for his second act was known
to millions in the revival of
the star trek franchises as well
as Charles Xavier in the x-men
films.
Now he tells his own story in a
new memoir sitting down with
every brown -- with Jeffrey
brown.
>> He would become one of the
world's best-known actors.
3-1 has to start somewhere.
Per Patrick's -- everyone has to
start somewhere and for Patrick
Stewart it happened when the
teacher gave him the script for
merchant of Venice.
>> Start reading.
And we all went --
and he yelled at us.
Not to your cells, you idiots.
And then he said, this is a
play.
It is people.
It is real life.
It is not just being on a stage.
You have to invite people into
it.
>> Some seven decades later he
invites us into his own life
drama in a memoir entitled
making it so.
>> There was something about
having those words in my mouth
that felt good.
I felt I was in control.
Reporter: It gave you a self and
a confidence.
>> Exactly.
What it gave me was that I could
drop being Patrick Stewart.
Reporter: What does that mean?
>> It means that I did not
really like who I was and I felt
much more comfortable when I was
somebody else.
Actually, the first time I
walked onto a stage and breathed
in, because I was nervous, I
realized suddenly I felt safer
then I have felt in any of my
childhood years.
I mean literally safe.
Nothing bad can happen to me on
this stage.
Reporter: As he writes the
future captain of the starship
enterprise grew up in a tough
blue-collar town in the north of
England without hot water or and
indoor toilets.
His first years were good ones
but his father's return from
World War II changed everything.
His father, described as a
weekend alcoholic, would beat
his mother and young Patrick
could not protect her.
There is a mixture of and
strength that runs through your
-- of wound and strength that
runs through your life story.
>> I feel that in my work and in
important relationships.
And I have benefited from it and
also from 30 years ago when
someone I knew quite well said
to me -- have you ever thought
of therapy, Patrick?
Psychological therapy?
And I thought, why would I do
that.
Give it a shot.
And I was hooked right away.
And that has been one of the
ways that I have two understand
my life, my childhood, my father
.
Understand him because he made
me angry and fearful when he was
around.
And he is one of the people I
miss now because I would like
him to read the book.
Reporter: Patrick Stewart would
work his way up from local
productions to the royal
Shakespeare company.
He writes of lessons along the
way including how great actors
develop "An invisible cloak of
truth that elevates their
performances."
The actor is both pretending and
not pretending?
Patrick: I don't like the word
"Pretending" although in a sense
pretends is partly what we are
activated to do when we are
acting.
But the people that you
mentioned, their performance,
work, it lives inside them.
Reporter: A lesson he learned
when a director convinced him to
take on a shakespearean monster
in the winter's tale.
>> And she said, I think you are
fearful about what you must
understand is that this
character already lives inside
you.
And I was outraged at that.
And he said, but you are an
actor.
All you have to do is let it
out.
Reporter: Another level of pain
would come in his late 40's.
The actor strike continues so he
asked us not to do -- not to use
clips.
But fans well know how he
commanded those roles with his
voice and presence.
A -- Patrick Stewart knew
nothing of this world when he
first came to it.
You are not star trek literate.
>> Not remotely.
And I was not a fan of sci-fi
and I still struggle just a
little bit.
Reporter: But you are saying
that in these characters for a
television and film that you
were able to find the same way
in as you did to Shakespeare.
The complexity.
Patrick: Making sure that if the
complexity was inside him, when
I released it it would make
sense.
Reporter: Do yourself as well as
the audience?
Patrick: Always to myself but
hopefully as often to the
audience.
That was always my objective.
I wanted to bring the audience
into our world.
I was never that interested in
thrusting it out.
But just inviting people to come
in and share what we were
experiencing.
>> Say --I am happy.
Reporter: He took to the stage
again working in a Samuel
Beckett work.
Patrick: It requires connection.
And that connection is not made
by yelling.
There is a wonderful American
comic whose name is gone who was
once asked, what is acting and
he said, acting is yelling!
[Laughter]
Reporter: But not for you.
Patrick: Not for me.
Reporter: There is one role he
still wants to take on, king
Lear.
But he says --
Patrick: Someone said I was a
bit too old for king Lear.
I cannot get it right.
I feel that though I may be too
old to play kingly or, I could
-- king Lear, I could give it a
shot.
Reporter: We will look for your
kingly year.
Patrick Stewart.
♪♪