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Actor and Shakespeare aficionado Sir Patrick Stewart died Wednesday at the age of 86 from Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia, according to a Thursday post on his social media accounts. The first half of Stewart’s career was on the stage, as part of the UK’s Royal Shakespeare Company. He was a mainstay in the British theater scene, but Americans got to know Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” the role that defined his career.
Stewart was well into his “Star Trek” fame when Playboy first caught up with him for a “20 Questions” interview in 1992. At the time, he discussed his favorite fan interaction, his brief and turbulent journalism career, and about the wild enthusiasm of Trekkies. Then, 28 years later, Stewart sat down with Playboy again in 2020 to answer another “20 Questions,” looking back on “Star Trek,” his career, and his longtime friendship with “X-Men” co-star Sir Ian McKellen.
In light of his death, here are the five best things Stewart told Playboy.
On whether the future is more fun:
“It’s always amused me, the extent to which people will complain of any one period being more wicked, licentious or libertine than another. Generally speaking, I think those who are looking for fun will invariably find it — no matter what the era.”
On acting:
“When I was acting as a child, I wasn’t ‘Patrick Stewart.’ I was living somebody else’s life, one that was better than mine. I have always felt safe onstage. As the years go by, what I love about this job is that I get braver about showing myself, letting it be personal and not just a ‘performance.'”
On “Star Trek’s” enduring fandom:
“There is a mystery at the heart of ‘Star Trek’ that touches people. It’s composed of elements like hope, optimism, companionship, comradeship and courtesy, legitimacy and boldness. It lies in this assurance, which can only be a theoretical assurance, that we’re going to survive — that some of us will make it. I’ve never forgotten what Whoopi Goldberg said the first year she appeared on the show. The reason she gave for inviting herself — a movie star — onto a syndicated TV series was that as a child in New York she watched the original ‘Star Trek.’ And there she would see a Black woman in an authority position on the ship, and she said to herself, ‘Well, one of us made it.’ I think many people watch our show and say, even though it may be subliminal, ‘Some of us made it.'”
On why he signed on to “Star Trek”:
“I’m told that when Marlon Brando arrived in Hollywood and a journalist asked him why he had abandoned the New York stage for the glamour of Hollywood, he said, ‘Because I didn’t have the moral fiber to resist.’ There’s a large element of that in me, too. But what made the decision for me — and the cynical among your readers will at this point curl their lips and scoff — was that it smacked so much of sheer outrageous adventure that I couldn’t resist it. Every aspect of it — working in Hollywood, being in a TV series, being in a science-fiction series, trying to revive something that had been successful before — was irresistible. I knew if I said no, I would never know if I might have been able to pull it off. Also, I’ve played a lot of leaders, and I like it. I’m fascinated by power and the use and misuse of power.”
On society:
“We live in a complicated world in which the need for care and concern for other members of society is much more potent than it ever was before.”
