Patrick Stewart: Why I Stormed Off the Set of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’
Patrick Stewart: Why I Stormed Off the Set of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’
In an exclusive excerpt from his new autobiography, 'Making It So,' the actor reveals a time when he got quite upset with his castmates at 'TNG' during the show's first season.
“I could be a severe bastard,” he writes. “My experiences at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre had been intense and serious … On the TNG set, I grew angry with the conduct of my peers, and that’s when I called that meeting in which I lectured the cast for goofing off and responded to Denise Crosby’s, ‘We’ve got to have some fun sometimes, Patrick’ comment by saying, ‘We are not here, Denise, to have fun.'”
“In retrospect,” Stewart continues, “everyone, me included, finds this story hilarious. But in the moment, when the cast erupted in hysterics at my pompous declaration, I didn’t handle it well. I didn’t enjoy being laughed at. I stormed off the set and into my trailer, slamming the door.”
Stewart then details how Frakes and Spiner came to his trailer for a heart-to-heart chat.
“People respect you,” Spiner told him. “But I think you misjudged the situation here.”
Recalls Stewart: “He and Jonathan acknowledged that yes, there was too much goofing around and that it needed to be dialed back. But they also made it clear how off-putting it was — and not a case study in good leadership — for me to try to resolve the matter by lecturing and scolding the cast. I had failed to read the room, imposing RSC behavior on people accustomed to the ways of episodic television — which was, after all, what we were shooting.”
In short, he became angry because he was used to theater acting and tried to hold a tv production to theater’s standards.
There's interviews with Frakes where he talks about stepping into the director's role for a few episodes and quickly realizing that it was very difficult to do when the cast would goof off up until the word ACTION gets called.
So Stewart probably had a point, especially from production's view.
Neat.
Incidentally, Jonathan Frakes now directs fantastic episodes of television.
Many science fiction shows have had Jonathan Frakes direct just an episode or two, and they usually end up being favorites.
In short, he became angry because he was used to theater acting and tried to hold a tv production to theater’s standards.
It seems like a perfectly human mistake and an experience from which he learned.
Yes. If he carried a grudge for years, that would make him a pompous ass. This, on the other hand, just sounds like someone making the adjustment to television acting from a stage career.
I like that his fellow cast members felt like they could talk to him about it. That alone says quite a bit.
This is probably my favorite story about the filming of TNG. He wanted to take it very seriously, his cast mates were all goofing around too much, and the end result landed somewhere in the middle, which I think served the show well in the end. Patrick Stewart elevated the show, and it might not have been so successful otherwise.
Listening to Patrick Stewart say, with full frustration in his voice "we are not here to have FUN" would have made me laugh him out too. God I would have killed to have footage of that
Would you settle for Brent Spiner doing his best Patrick Stewart about the situation?
The footage I'd like to see would be Patrick Stewart seeing Galaxy Quest for the first time. Actually, I'd kill to have that as a commentary for the Blu-ray. Hell, give me all the casts' first reactions.
Well I think I need to pick up this book, or at least the audiobook.
If he does the narration, I would pick up the audiobook in a heartbeat.
@The_Picard_Maneuver
@startrek.website @HumbleHoboHe does! 🙂🖖
https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/B0C3VW4PVY?source_code=ASSORAP0511160007
The article contains an audio excerpt of this very story.
Is there anyone else here that feels that Patrick Stewart is violating the spirit of the SAG-AFTRA strike with his book promoting interviews?
While it’s likely his publisher wanted a fall release for the Christmas gift market, it seems really inappropriate that he’s out pitching how he wanted his show to end (with his real life wife getting another voice credit) or stories about TNG behind the scenes.
SAG members have been constrained from talking about the franchise in convention panels, or promoting their new shows, but he’s out there selling his book based on his career in the IP and distracting from Lower Decks which needs all the boost it can get.
It’s not making me admire Stewart, and settled any question of buying his book for the negative.
I can see the argument that it's splitting hairs, but he's promoting the book, not his acting work or Star Trek as a franchise.
Splitting hairs
Heh