I’d been warned about Patrick by friends who’d worked with him at the Royal Shakespeare Company. They said: “Marina, you can’t be you around Patrick Stewart. He takes it very seriously and he won’t abide you mucking about and trying to make people corpse.” We had been cast together on Star Trek: The Next Generation and, because of what I’d heard, I was a bit scared, a bit intimidated.
And let’s be honest – Patrick was very serious about the work. But there was a concerted effort by the rest of us to beat it out of him. We were from a younger generation and we wanted to shake up this Englishman who was so typical of his generation – stiff upper lip and a Yorkshireman to boot.
You know, the kind of person who was not exactly renowned for showing their emotions. Early on Patrick told us all that we weren’t there to have fun, and you should have seen the looks he got. I’m a cockney: I’ve got a Spurs tattoo and we all looked at him in the same way I look at an Arsenal fan.
But we did loosen him up. And – he’s said this himself – I think we actually freed him. We gave him a freedom that he said he’d never really felt before.
Of course it went both ways. We learned so much from him, how could you not? We learned from his professionalism and his absolutely insane talent.
He brought gravitas to the role. Star Trek was a bit of a punchline before Patrick came along – it’s not any more. Patrick gave it depth – here was this consummate Shakespearean actor playing the captain of a starship.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
