Patrick Stewart turns 70 this year, and he looks the same as when he assumed the captain's chair aboard the Enterprise in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" nearly 23 years ago.
As he slips into the command chair of an office overlooking the historic Miners Foundry in Nevada City at the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival on a recent Saturday night, Stewart orders a glass of wine. He was in town to introduce a documentary he narrates, "Nature Propelled," an extreme sports film by his friend Seth Warren.
The next week, after a few days of skiing with his girlfriend, Stewart would be in San Francisco for a "Star Trek" convention and to rehearse with San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas for a Stravinsky piece they will perform at the Chicago Symphony next month. Later this year, Stewart will be seen in television adaptations of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" (he is Claudius) and the title role in "Macbeth."
Q: So you're doing Stravinsky ("Oedipus Rex") with Michael Tilson Thomas - are you a musician?
A: No, there's a storyteller in it, threaded through the music. We did something like that together in San Francisco about six years ago, and we really enjoyed working together. ... I'm passionate about music - it fills my life. So to spend five days with some of the best musicians in the world is my idea of heaven.
Q: You haven't done many films lately. Are you taking a break?
A: I've been almost exclusively focusing on theater the last five years, because I have a lot of catching up to do (smiles). It's all I ever wanted to do. I had no ambition to work in television, I had no ambition to work in film, because it just seemed improbable and unlikely. All I ever wanted to be was on the stage, because the stage was, well, quite crudely, the safest place to be. Far safer than the outside world. ... Everything else that happened was an accident. A wonderful accident.
Q: An accident that led to two prominent roles in two major franchises: "Star Trek" and "X-Men."
A: My feeling is you cannot have too many franchises in a career! My dear friend Ian McKellen was in "X-Men," "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and soon will make it three, with "The Hobbit."
Q: You were just knighted during the 2010 New Year's Honour services, so now you're Sir Patrick Stewart. You have a long and distinguished stage career, but would you have been knighted had you not played Capt. Jean-Luc Picard?
A: (Long pause.) It is a result. I'm grateful to you for making me reflect on that. Because the cumulative result of "Star Trek" and the "X-Men" ... when I went back to the U.K. after 15 years away, I went and did an Ibsen play ("The Master Builder"). ... Not a writer that fills theaters. What "Star Trek" did was to take me out of the world of being an elitist Shakespearean actor with a very small audience, and it put me on an international stage. ... After the role ended, I was able to mount stage projects that I never would have been able to do before.
Q: I know William Shatner went through a period where he hated being Capt. Kirk. What about you? Ever resent being identified with Jean-Luc Picard?
A: No, I'm grateful. I did a one-man show that did quite well, "A Christmas Carol." ... We sold the first week on Broadway through the "Star Trek" fan clubs (laughs). That was the marketing! And they filled the place. It doesn't matter why they come. ... Ian and I, we shared a dressing room for seven months (in 2009) doing "Waiting for Godot." I do think we've been significantly creating a new audience for live theater.
Q: So you turn 70 in July. You look like a man of 50. Any thoughts on the big 7-Oh?
A: I think I have great peasant genes. You ought to look at my thighs! I've got great peasant thighs - and hands. And I've got to thank Hollywood. I think 17 years in Hollywood where I really took care of myself - really took care of myself.
The fact of the matter is, I've never been so happy in my life, I've never been so fulfilled, and I've never been so optimistic - well, except it looks like we're going to have a conservative government in England. ... My kids are good, my grandchildren are great.
I just spent five years renovating a house in England. And it's done! And I just did it for me. And I can't wait to get up in the mornings. Anyway, in 10 days' time, I'll see all my doctors in Los Angeles, and we'll see what they say. Because I had a heart procedure five years ago. Came out of the blue. And wow, it was shocking. Hopefully, they will sign off on me again, as they have every year since.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/28/MVNU1BO7U1.DTL#ixzz0e4CENQGi
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