Posted:
08:13:56 on June 10 2002
By: Steve Krutzler
Dept: People
In a new "60 Second Interview" at England's Metro Cafe, Patrick Stewart offers new insights into playing Picard since 1987.
"After the first two years, the [uniform] design was changed. They were one-piece spandex and made a size too small. They were body-hugging and actually started to give me back and shoulder problems," the actor remembers. "I went to see a specialist, and when he saw what I had been wearing for 12 hours a day, he knew it was the cause. We got rid of them and got wool two-pieces which upset the women because they liked spandex."
Q: Holds everything in place, doesn't it?
Stewart: Absolutely, and we had some very good-looking women on our show.
Q: After 15 years,is playing Picard getting tiresome?
Stewart: It did towards the end of the television series because that was seven unbroken years. What saved it for me was directing the odd episode; every few months my life would take on a heightened intensity
Q: When the Starship Enterprise is under attack, the crew seem to fly all over the bridge - has nobody thought of installing seatbelts?
Stewart: We finished the next movie at the end of March, go and see it and you will have the answer to that question.
Q: Do you go to the conventions?
Stewart: I've done many of them. I went to my first at the end of our opening season and was utterly unprepared for the pressure and the intensity. I wasn't very keen but I was persuaded and went to one in Denver. When I arrived backstage I could hear the sound of an audience and asked how many people were out there. I had expected about 400 but, in fact, there were 3,500 in what was the equivalent of an aircraft hangar. I got a small hint of what it must have been like for The Beatles at The Shea Stadium - pandemonium.
Q: I understand you're quite fascinated by power and politics?
Stewart: I've been involved in politics since the first election after World War II, when Churchill was thrown out. My father was involved in the trade union movement, so it was inevitable. I believe you cannot be on this planet and not be political - being alive is political.
Q: What do you make of the current US President?
Stewart: What is happening in the White House is dismaying and I find myself more apprehensive than ever about the role of the US in the world. I thought I would not live to hear and see some of the things that are happening. Rumsfeld and co have made statements like: 'If you are not 100 per cent with us, then you are the enemy.' That's Orwellian.
Q: You were once voted America's top TV turn-on. Is this proof that bald men do it best?
Stewart: I was reading a small piece recently about some zoologists who have been doing research on a species of lion from South East Asia which is bald. Studies have proved that these lions are the most violent, dominant, fearful and high-testosterone creatures on the planet. The scientists believe there is a chemical and biological link between hairlessness and intense potency.
You can read more of Stewart's thoughts on covention-going, Picard's societal influence, and dealing with high-profile fame here. Thanks to David Bandey for the submission!
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