INTERVIEW
1
called me and gave me a really
serious talking to. The last thing
he said was, “Patrick, you will
never achieve success by
insuring against failure.” I
thought then, ‘Yeah, I get it.’
But it took about 30 years to
truly get what he meant, which is
don’t play safe, be brave, risk
everything. What’s the worst
that could happen?
What were the risks you took
with this film?
PS: Playing an American was the
biggest challenge actually. Even
though I’ve lived here for so
many years, it’s challenging, and
we couldn’t afford to have a
dialect coach on the set all the
time.
Was it challenging
culturally?
PS: Oh no, I’m just speaking
technically about the sounds
that I make. He spent most of
his time working abroad and
that’s the reason why he
occasionally sounds weird and
not American.
Is there a risk when you
take on a role like Professor
Charles Xavier in X-Men?
PS: I perceived a big risk in that,
which is why initially I’d turned
it down. So, when X-Men came
along I thought, “I’ve already got
one albatross around my neck.
Why would I want to have two?”
But then I met with the director
(Bryan Singer), and you know
the way directors are. They say
the greatest things. He
persuaded me that this time it
would be different, and it was
In the last year
or two I have
been trying to
reach out to
people who
were very close
to me when I
was first acting.
I’m curious to
try to make
contact with
the person they
knew then who
was called
Patrick
Stewart. I’ve
lost him.
different. It has not been like
that at all.
From the time that Star
Trek finally came to an end, I
had had a couple of experiences
that showed me there was a
handicap to having been in such
a successful and popular
television and film series. I had
been pursuing a supporting role
in a movie. I’d seen the script,
and loved it and really wanted it.
I was desperate to get in to see
the very successful film director
and persuade him I was the guy
to do this. Finally I did. We had
a lovely meeting and he said,
“Yeah, you’d be great for this. I
don’t have any doubt at all that
you’d be perfect for it, but I have
to ask you, ‘Why would I want
Captain Picard in my movie?’”
What advice would you give
actors to avoid being
typecast?
PS: I always cite Dustin
Hoffman as one of my heroes for
the choices he made at the start
of his career. I’m sure he was
being asked to do The
Graduate type over and over
and over. But what did he do?
He starred in such films
as Midnight Cowboy, Little Big
Man and Lenny. The diversity of
what Hoffman did made it so
that whenever you went to see
one of his movies, you never
knew what kind of experience it
was going to be.
Did you see a similarity with
the way dancers approach
their craft and the way
actors do theirs?
THEGAYUK | ISSUE 16 | NOV 2015 37