“Here’s the funny thing, I was talking to a director a few months ago, and I mentioned that I was I’ve been reading and thinking about King Lear, says Sir Patrick Stewart of his possible future career plans “And he said, Yes, yes, of course. But, you know, Patrick, you’re a little too old. Okay. Well, that was something of a shock.”
What also is a shock to the 83-year-old Royal Shakespeare Company, X-Men and Star Trek alum is that the knight of the realm is now a best-selling author on both sides of the Atlantic just over a week after its October 3 release.
Fresh off a book tour of the United States and heading to the United Kingdom for more, Sir Patrick has seen his Making It So memoir hit #5 in Hardcover Nonfiction and #7 in Print and Ebook combined on the New York Times list. Detailing the actor’s life from his working-class childhood in Northern England to the stages of London and Broadway and the deck of the USS Enterprise as iconic captain Jean-Luc Picard, the book proved both a challenge and a labor of “intense” love for Stewart.
Speaking from his home in Los Angeles before setting off on more travels, Stewart delved into his love of the writer’s life, a new career he never thought he’d have time for. With Star Trek: Picard wrapping up earlier this year with its third and final season, the actor also discussed and hopes for the future with the Bard, the crew of the Enterprise and more.
DEADLINE: So, right away, the list is out and congratulations. How does it feel to be on the New York Times best sellers list with your first book?
PATRICK STEWART: I am very, very pleased that my memoir is listed in The New York Times Best Sellers List. An unexpected honor in my life.
DEADLINE: A memoir is by its very nature a look back, but did writing Making It So change your perspective on yourself?
STEWART: Oh, many Yes.
A door was opened, just a little opening, when I first sat in this chair at this desk, on the screen in front of me to begin writing the first lines of the memoir which are still the first lines. And while that didn’t change, of course, there were many changes to come.
DEADLINE: Such as?
STEWART: (LAUGHS) My first draft was 750 pages. And I think now the book is around 460 pages. So that was a lot of advice I had to take and as I had never done anything like this, or indeed anticipated ever doing anything like this. I welcome the advice and it’s increased in intensity the longer that I did it. When I came to the most difficult parts of my relationship with my parents and my older brother, that was difficult because I’d like the first five years of my life which only brought about wonderful feelings of safety and happiness and fun when it was my mother and my elder brother five years older than me and myself.
DEADLINE: Obviously, that creative process is intense, but this was, as we said, your first time writing a book. How did that, the writing itself, play out for you?
STEWART: The project became more and more enticing and exciting. I loved coming up here because I’m upstairs and closing the door and burying myself in memories and the past.
I think all my memories are accurate. I avoided wherever I could exaggeration, and tried to be as open and honest as possible. The other thing I tried to do was to write in my voice. Because not to do that would seem a betrayal of what I was doing. I couldn’t pretend to be someone else. So, as I delve deeper and deeper into Patrick Stewart as it became more and more serious.
DEADLINE: Was that something you expected?
STEWART: To some extent, but the most important choice that I made very early was I am not an academic. I am not literally all the books have played a massive part of my life. From the age of about six. I discovered my local library in the small town I was growing up in. So, in addition, as I mentioned, finding my voice was the most challenging thing. Even more challenging when we came to record the audio book, which I’d never done before, but I’ve never written a book before.
DEADLINE: I know that, but I find it so surprising that a man with one of the most distinct voices in the world has never done an audio book before…
STEWART: Well, that’s kind of you to say that, Dominic, but I in terms of an audio books, I never had a time – my career has been packed with work. And for this, now I feel very fortunate and very, very grateful. I was asked to write a memoir a couple of times a few years ago, but I had to pass because I didn’t have the time available.
I knew if I was to try attempt to write, I would need empty days to do that. Not days full of learning write lines and turning up for early calls and all of that. And so that’s what the last two and a half to three years have been about.
DEADLINE: Am I correct to assume the pandemic played a role?
STEWART: Of course, Covid and all of that had a significant impact on it because it shut down most of my workspaces. It was my agent who said to me, Patrick, you’re not going to work this time. There is no work. Nobody’s working. So why don’t you just take this opportunity and give it a shot and see what happens. And that seemed reasonable. So, I did. And then fortunately, it became, well, I guess, a delightful obsession.
DEADLINE: Now that delightful obsession has become a best seller, you’re about to embark on part two of your book tour, and that very busy career, you mentioned are there more obsessions, more mountains for Sir Patrick Stewart to engage with?
STEWART: (LAUGHS) Several, but whether the stamina and energy remains to climb those mountains? I’m not sure so. I have to be very very cautious about what I take on.
Until recently, I never even thought about being 83, and now that I am I don’t know quite what happened. Thirty years ago, I felt like how I feel now and except that yes my stamina is not quite what it wants. So, I will have to be careful about what I take on.
DEADLINE: Anything you are toying with?
STEWART: One outstanding piece of work that numerous people have talked to me about is a production of King Lear.
You know, actors that have had a career like mine, especially when it had so much theater attached to it, and so much of that theater, most of it, in fact, was related to the Royal Shakespeare Company that it would naturally be expected. Here’s the funny thing, I was talking to a director a few months ago, and I mentioned that I was I’ve been reading and thinking about King Lear. And he said, Yes, yes, of course. But, you know, Patrick, you’re a little too old. Okay. Well, that was something of a shock. I mean, Lear describes himself as threescore years and 10. So he was 70 and in 1615 or 1610, that was a very, very ancient – I think much closer to what it’s like to be in your eighties in 2023.
DEADLINE: To that, did you contact colleagues from past productions and your career during the writing of the book to see if their recollection of events lined up with your own?
STEWART: I reached out on occasions. I did.
I think primarily to my Star Trek colleagues, to say, am I right that this happened then? These were the circumstances and they’ve been lovely.
Of course. I have a beautiful relationship with all the principal actors who were with me in Next Generation. And it continues and grows stronger and better with every year that passes and returning to work with them as I did for the three seasons of Picard. Part of the fact was that we filmed Season 2 and Season 3 back-to-back. So that was 20 episodes without a break in between.
DEADLINE: How was that?
STEWART: That was intense. I was very glad to take a short rest when it was over.
DEADLINE: Is it over? Is there another Star Trek mountain for you still to scale? I know you’ve spoke of wanting to do more, but is that a real desire?
STEWART: Although I never anticipated there would be a series called Star Trek: Picard, I am very enthusiastic that we might do one more adventure.
DEADLINE: Really?
STEWART: Yes, and I think would be best if it were a film. As when Next Generation came to an end, we then made four films. Now, I’m not suggesting that but I think given how different all of the principal characters are in in Picard everyone was changed by the passage of time. And this was Alex Kurtzman and Akiva Goldsman talking to me when they pitched Picard and about our lives have changed in 25 years. So, I would like to see the ensemble of us finding a more significant way of saying goodbye.
DEADLINE: How realistic is that?
STEWART: We’ll see. Nobody has yet. agreed to that, but I’m quietly working away.
DEADLINE: You have completed a book tour of America, heading off to Europe. What has that been like and was there anything from the book tour that surprised you?
STEWART: Yes. The reception I received from our audiences everywhere surprised me.
We went to do an evening of having a moderated Q&A, and then being asked all kinds of questions, and it became a dialogue, in a sense. A dialogue not just between the moderator and myself, but between myself and the audience. I was delightfully surprised by the involvement of the audience in that, and they gave me so much support. That made it fun, and more interesting than I expected it to be.
I mean I’ve done seven evening events in the last 10 days. I mean, I’ve cross the United States twice, one way go heading east and then another way slowly heading west. I’ve been stopping off in very important locations to meet an audience and it’s been delightful – although I must say, I’m still hoping to recover.
DEADLINE: In the anticipation that you recover, do you see yourself writing more in the future? Another book?
STEWART: I think about it quite a lot. That’s all I have to say.
DEADLINE: I doubt that …
STEWART: Dominic, I enjoyed the experience so much, but it was my memoir. I am not a novelist. I’m not a storyteller in that sense. I know I’m not. But I have some other little ideas which I will keep to myself for the time being. Because sitting here as I did for almost three years clicking away so much, I kind of feel maybe I should give it find something and give it another shot.