ILLUSTRATION BY Mark SummersStewart stars in the
series ‘Star Trek:
Picard,’ out now on
CBS All Access.What’s the best advice
you ever received?
Duncan Ross, a brilliant act-
ing teacher, gave me a stern
talking to. He said, “Patrick,
you will never achieve suc-
cess by ensuring against fail-
ure.” I thought I understood
what he meant: You’ve got to
take risks. It was 30 years of
being an actor before I really
understood; now it’s becomeing in is a different place.
Both our countries are in the
same kind of predicament:
We have a totally unsuitable
person running the country.
I use, as an example, the film
Logan. No longer was Charles
Xavier the compassionate in-
tellectual sitting in his wheel-
chair; he was a totally broken
person. When I thought
about Star Trek, I used Logan
as an illustration — we contin-
ued the themes of the X-Men
movies, but there had been
dramas, horror, and trage-
dies, and things were now
grim and perilous.
You went bald very
young. Was that hard to
cope with?
Yes, it was. By the time
I was 20, [my hair]
was gone. I thought it
meant my romantic life
was over. What woman
would go out with a bald
19-year-old? I thought,
“Romance is dead for me,
so just throw yourself into
your work, Patrick. Make the
best of it.”
You recently revived
your one-man A Christmas
Carol show. What has that
classic taught you?
I’m seeing the story very dif-
ferently. Because [of ] what
has happened in our world,
I’m seeing it more as a po-
litical document than as a
sweet, adorable Christmas
story. It’s full of bitter, savage
attacks on the inequalities of
life. Dickens wrote brilliantly
about it. It’s not about being
rich or poor; but it’s about, if
you have resources, what do
you do with them? You make
them available to people
who have less, and you do
all that you can to care for
them. SEAN WOODSYou were a journalist
early on. Why did you
choose acting?
I was a cub reporter. I was
very lucky to have a job like
that, but I’d become involved
with amateur theatricals.
I loved it. There was a prob-
lem: All my acting inter-
fered with my work. I got
into trouble. I was dishonest.
I made things up; I invented
stuff. Because to me, being
at the rehearsal was more
important than attending a
council meeting.
Finally, I was found
out when the huge mill
in my town caught fire
and the editor said,
“No, don’t worry,
Patrick’s right
next door.” Well,
I wasn’t. I was in
rehearsal. I got
hauled before the
editor, who gave me
an ultimatum. I didn’t
like being talked to
like that, so I left. I went
home and said, “I’m
going to be an actor.” And
my parents said, “How are
you going to do that?” And
I said, “I’ve no idea, but I’m
going to find out.”
In Picard, you’re return-
ing to your Star Trek char-
acter for the first time since- Were you hesitant?
Hesitant? I turned it down. It
was history. There was noth-
ing more to be said about
Jean-Luc Picard. I’m 79 now,
and there is a ticking clock.
But I have to admit, the
script caught my atten-
tion. It was not return-
ing to the world that I’d
been in before.
How so?
The world
we’re liv-
a habit of mine. Every night
before I make an entrance
onstage, I say out loud,
“I don’t give a fuck!” And it
works. It takes away anxiety,
stress, and all of those stu-
pid wasteful things that don’t
help you at all.
You grew up in an abu-
sive household. How did
that experience shape you?
My father was in the British
Expeditionary Force, and
the German panzers massa-
cred them. He suffered from
PTSD for the rest of his life.
That was not recognized at
the time, and it made many
aspects of my life unpleasant.
The sad thing is, I didn’t
know that he was suffering
and needed therapy. I could
do nothing for my parents
when I was little. Nothing. I
would put my body between
my father and my mother
and defy him, but it didn’t
often help. In their names,
I’m able, through my charity
work with families suffering
from domes tic violence and
veterans coping with PTSD,
to do more for them.The legendary actor on the secret to
great acting and Picard’s evolutionPatrick Stewart
98 | Rolling Stone | February 2020