A hearty Stew: Patrick Stewart on acting, labour unions, and his new memoir
Over 60 years, he’s starred in Star Trek, X-Men, sci-fi and Shakespeare. What did it take to be so many things to so many people? An exclusive interview.
Patrick Stewart is the sort of actor for whom words such as “studied”, “historic”, “prodigious” and “legion” were made.
To wit: He has gathered legions of fans across generations, with his studied acting in what can only be described as historic roles. This isn’t hyperbole. Even non-Trekkies know of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the morally upright captain of the starship Enterprise; and, you needn’t be a Trekkie to know of the wheelchair-using Professor Charles Xavier, under whose tutelage millennial mutants attained responsible adulthood in the X-Men films.
A previous generation knew him as the soldier Lucius Aelius Sejanus, in the 1970s British series, I, Claudius, about the life of the titular 1st century CE Roman emperor. Before that, in the 1960s, Stewart was a young, green-behind-the-ears actor who toured with the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing alongside Vivien Leigh, who had by then won an Oscar for her portrayal of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939).
In his new memoir, Making It So (Simon & Schuster; October 2023), Stewart takes the reader through this journey, detailing what it took to achieve his prodigious skill, and tracing the many milestones that followed. The narrative is clear and precise, much like the man.
At least a few times in this writer’s conversation with him, for instance, Stewart brings up anecdotes he has described in the book. And while it is a peculiar pleasure to hear stories straight from the horse’s mouth, as it were, there is in them a touch of the studied, well-rehearsed response. The man is an actor, after all, and has already told his life story in the book. What more could he reveal?
Well, for one thing, it turns out that the 83-year-old thespian can also hold a note. (More on that in a bit.)
He is disarmingly candid as well. At one point in the book, he describes meeting Sting on the sets of David Lynch’s Dune (1984), and not knowing who he was. He also points out that he knew “next to nothing” about Star Trek when he was called in to be part of …The Next Generation (1987-94), even though the highly popular Star Trek: The Original Series, with William Shatner playing Kirk and Leonard Nimoy playing Spock, was about two decades old at this point.
“It will not surprise you to learn that the guy who thought that Sting played a double bass in a policeman’s band knew next to nothing of Star Trek. When Steve (Dontanville, an American agent who represented Stewart) explained that Gene Roddenberry, the creator of this legendary science-fiction programme, was developing a new version of the show, for which I was evidently being considered for a part, I realised that it sounded vaguely familiar,” Stewart says. “I recalled that in my kids’ younger years, when I came home for tea between performances of a matinee and an evening show, I’d find Dan and Sophie sitting in front of the television watching a programme with guys in coloured long-sleeved shirts. It was called Star Walk or Star Track, something like that, and I was aware that the kids were rapt and did not want to be pestered by Dad until the episode had ended.”
By the time he auditioned for …The Next Generation, Stewart had already acted in a few science-fiction movies, including the memorable Dune and the not-so-memorable Lifeforce (1985; a sci-fi horror work). At the time, Stewart was in his mid-40s — middle aged, and as he put it, “mired in this mix of ambition and existential funk”.
The newer series, with Stewart playing Jean-Luc Picard, defied expectations, running for seven seasons. In fact, so enduring has the appeal of Roddenberry’s world been that, from 2020 to 2023, Stewart returned as Picard, in a streaming series of that name centred on his character.
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At the start of our conversation, the actor clarifies that he will only speak of his work in relation to his memoir, out of deference for the ongoing SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) strike. The American labour union comprising writers and actors ran parallel to the WGA (Writers Guild of America) strike, which was successfully concluded earlier this month. As with WGA, SAG-AFTRA members have sought better wages and compensation from streaming platforms.
It is not surprising that Stewart, who grew up in Yorkshire and describes himself as coming from “trade union stock”, should extend his solidarity.
The actor refers to his politics early on in his memoir, describing how, as a boy of five, he campaigned for the local Labour Party candidate William Paling during the 1945 post-World War 2 election. A policeman raised his hand to strike at the young boy when Stewart’s father, Alfred Stewart, a veteran of both world wars, emerged from a nearby polling booth, wearing, serendipitously, his full military uniform. (“Remember, these were the days when policemen were allowed to hit children,” Stewart says, shocked by the excesses of the world he grew up in.)
He still remembers the ditty he sang while campaigning for the Labour candidate. “Mr Paling is a man / And we’ll have him if we can. / If he’ll only put his shoulder to the wheel,” Stewart sings, ending with a large smile.
“My social inclinations were already showing themselves in 1945,” he says. Having been raised in a region with a rich history of trade unions in its textile and mining industries, he joined his own theatre repertory’s union as a young stage actor.
“My first payment, in 1960, was £5.20. I was content with that at that time and thought I could make that work. But as I got a little older and more responsible, I felt that it was taking advantage of me and my background and not paying me what I deserve to be paid or giving my union the respect that was required,” Stewart says. “And that is very much what has been happening today with the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA.”
It is his passionate belief, he adds, that we should live in an equal and just society. “And this is not the case. There are prejudices leaning in one direction or another, and that’s partly what the writers’ strike and the actors’ strike has been about, and they will be resolved. The writers’ one has been resolved very well, and I admire their determination and their enthusiasm for making the lives of their members better and better. It’s the way we all ought to live.”
The legions are listening, and hopefully in agreement. Let’s make it so.
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