- Hello, I'm Patrick Stewart,
and you're in the studio with the Hollywood Reporter.
(upbeat music)
- Let's start at the very beginning.
Could you tell me a memory that sticks out to you
of the late, great Gene Roddenberry.
- Gene had been very reluctant to cast me
from the beginning,
from the first day that I was rushed over to his house
to meet with him.
The meeting lasted about seven minutes,
and all I can remember is there was a lot
of orange shag pile carpet in the bungalow he was living in.
But he made it clear that I was not what he was looking for.
And months and months went by,
and I was called back for more meetings and an audition,
and I became aware that there were people
who were campaigning for me as part of the production.
And at last, the moment came
and I auditioned for the studio, and they made me an offer.
Gene would come down to the set
two or three times during the week,
and he would sit in a director's chair
and watch what we were doing.
(laughs) And occasionally, I would catch him looking at me,
and I know that he was thinking,
what the hell is this guy doing in my show?
- (laughs)
- Because I don't think he'd ever got a,
I am told that somewhere in the archives,
in the cellars of Paramount,
there is a memo which came from Gene
to everybody on the production
saying that he did not want to hear my name mentioned again.
- Amazing. - But--
- What was it?
What was he looking for?
- Well you know, when this new series was announced
and the casting,
the Los Angeles Times described me as,
unknown British Shakespearean actor, Patrick Stewart.
- (laughs)
- As a foretaste of the kind of company
I was going to be keeping in this new series,
Brent Spiner, who played Data, the android,
he had a sign made, and it was,
I came back to my trailer one day
and it was stuck on my trailer door and it said
in big red letters,
beware unknown British Shakespearean actor.
(laughing)
So you know, if you didn't go
to the Royal Shakespeare Company
or watch BBC Two,
you really had know idea who this person was.
- There is a line that is very important
in the Star Trek universe,
which is, the line must be drawn here.
- Oh, yes, you're right.
- Right, from First Contact?
Did you know that that line was going to end up being such,
I mean, it's a meme, it's an internet sensation.
- Yeah.
No, I didn't.
All I knew that it was an opportunity
for me to illustrate what we rarely saw in Jean-Luc Picard,
but him in a rage, in a fury,
not able to contain his feelings.
But I was also teased about that
because I added a vowel sound that wasn't there.
I actually do say, and I heard this the other day,
the recording of it,
the line must be drawn hee-ya!
And it's not, it's here. - (laughs)
- Here is what we say, not hee-ya.
And, so I was teased a lot about that, but eh, well.
- (laughs) Well let's pivot.
There are so many directions I would love to go.
One of the things is your love of American cinema.
You directed A Fistful of Datas,
which is a spaghetti western.
- There was a lot of profound irritation about that,
because we had a number of directors who were,
you know, we were cycling through.
They were doing every fifth or sixth episode.
And very, very good directors.
And I had followed in Jonathan Frakes' footsteps who had,
he called it, he went to Paramount University
to learn to be a director.
And he was so serious about this that Rick Berman
finally gave him a show to direct,
and it was one of the best episodes we ever did.
And so, I felt I would like
to follow in his footsteps at some point.
So I got to do six shows, but you never quite knew
what you were going to direct
until maybe a few days before you started to prep on it.
And when the word got around that I was the one
who had landed the western,
I mean, people were so irritated about that.
I mean, he's an Englishman, he's a Shakespearean actor,
what does he know about westerns?
Well actually, I know a hell of a lot
because I saw so many westerns.
I loved westerns when I was a kid.
To be honest, directing those five or six episodes
over the last three seasons
gave me an added energy, an added enthusiasm
for what I was doing, a different kind of interest
because being behind the camera
is a very different experience.
And I think it kept me active
during the final couple of seasons of Next Generation.
- You have some of the most memorable lines
in film, television, and theater.
Can you tell me a line that sticks out to you,
a line that you love?
- You know, there was a period of my life
when I was doing a lot of Shakespeare.
I worked for 12 years with the Royal Shakespeare Company
in Stratford and London and touring worldwide.
And people would say to me,
what is your favorite Shakespearean line?
Well, you know,
where do you begin? - (laughs)
- But I always loved the ordinary things he said,
often very, very unexpectedly.
So plain, so simple.
For example, there's a moment at the end
of one of my favorite plays, Winter's Tale,
when Leontes, the king,
who believed his wife had died many, many, many years ago
and he was responsible for her death,
is taken to see a statue of her that has been made.
And the statue suddenly moves, and it's her.
And she takes her ex-husband's hand and he says,
"Oh, she's warm".
He used these simple, everyday phrases at times
and they have an almost shattering impact
on the verse and the poetry that surrounds them.
Actually, one of the lines
that has become commonplace in our family
was not said by me, it was said by Ian McKellen
when we did Waiting for Godot.
And he used to say to me with this emphasis,
"Not now Didi, not now"!
My wife has taken that up. (laughs)
So I get, not now Patrick, not now!
And there are other lines that stick
and will never ever really fade away.
- Do you have a favorite Star Trek movie, one that you love?
- I think the second movie, which was the one
that Jonathan Frakes directed, First Contact,
I think was outstanding
and was the best of our four movies.
And some of the episodes that Jonathan directed
are also outstanding.
And he is directing Star Trek: Picard,
two episodes in the first season.
And I think I can say with confidence he will be directing
in other seasons if and when they happen.
- My last question to you is about
your social media presence,
because you have won the hearts of the internet
with your friendship with Sir Ian McKellen
and also your love of your rescue dog.
Can you please tell your fans
some advice that they might have
if they would like long-lasting friendships
like the ones you have?
- I'm not sure Ian would feel about our relationship
being compared to my relationship with pit bulls.
- (laughs)
- Actually, it started very late,
because Ian had a very successful career.
Ian was already becoming a star
when he was at university, when he was at Cambridge.
People knew that there was this actor.
And I saw him when he was a young actor
and I was blown away by what he did,
not only the talent,
but he was so drop-dead gorgeous as well.
And you know, look at me.
Not a hope in hell.
And then it wasn't,
and we did work in the Royal Shakespeare Company together,
but I was very shy of him.
He always seemed to be surrounded by people, good friends.
But then we were cast in X-Men, and it was,
we had adjoining trailers.
And that was when the relationship really began.
And it was a simple matter that we found we had
a huge amount in common.
I love him deeply.
And of course, I think it's generally known now,
he actually married my wife and I,
he performed the ceremony.
He got himself the documents
that gave him permission to marry people.
And he's only done it once. - (laughs)
- I know he's had offers to do others.
I think he's been offered a lot of money to marry people.
But at the moment it just remains in us.
As for dogs, we are now beginning to discover
more and more and more
about the capacity for intelligent response that dogs have.
For instance, our very first rescue dog was Ginger,
and Ginger has now become and international superstar
on social media, and she's now in a forever home
and very, very happy.
I was once rather unwell.
I was throwing up in the bathroom,
there's a rather unpleasant side to this story.
But my wife was at the other end of the house
in the kitchen.
And I didn't know this, but Ginger had been watching me.
And I had my head in the toilet,
and then she ran off to the kitchen
and just began whimpering in front of Sunny, my wife.
And Sunny said, what is it, what's wrong?
And then she ran to the door,
and Sunny realized she wanted her to follow.
So thinking something must have happened,
she came and found me, unwell in the bathroom.
And the dog did that.
Nobody asked her,
but she saw what was happening
and knew that I needed some help and went to get it.
This level of empathic understanding that creatures have,
and there are so many of your viewers
right now at this moment
could tell many, many more stories like that,
of an intuitive sense that some dogs have
for what we are feeling.
Ginger would occasionally look at me,
and I know she would be saying, are you okay?
That was the look in her, are you okay?
Oh.
And I would go, everything's great, everything's fine.
And she'd go, oh good.
- Well Patrick Stewart,
congratulations on the new series, Picard.
It's on CBS All Access.
Thank you very much, and we'll see you out there in space
- Eventually you will.
- (laughs)
Yes, that's right.