Patrick Stewart says he was asked to wear a wig for his STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION audition

Patrick Stewart shared a story in his new memoir, “Making It So,” about how he was asked to wear a wig by Paramount executives to his Star Trek: The Next Generation auditioned for the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. So when he initially went to audition for the role, we wore a hairpiece that his then-wife Sheila Falconer had to ship to him from London to Los Angeles. He writes:

“Just as I was boarding my plane at Heathrow, my agent in London called Sheila at home and informed her that the Paramount people had been in contact, asking if I had a toupee and, if I did, could I bring it to the audition? Sheila dutifully retrieved my ‘audition wig’ from her space in my wardrobe and placed it in a box, whereupon a British Airways representative collected it and put it on a later flight to Los Angeles.

“I don’t know if my toupee flew first class. But Sunday it had arrived and I headed back to LAX to get it. He was ready in my briefcase when I drove to the Paramount Studios parking lot Monday morning.

Stewart’s audition consisted of reading just one scene and he managed to impress the people in the room. So much so that after the audition they went to the actor’s dressing room to see how the actor looked without a wig, with his naturally bald head. Stewart recalled the experience, saying:

“Shit, here’s the bad news, but all they did was thank me one more time, wish me a good day and leave.”

Stewart was then informed that the executives he had auditioned for had come to visit him so they could see him with his bald head. The wig didn’t seem to work, but they went well with his acting, with his bald head, and he got the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry initially did not want Stewart in the role and producer Rick Bermann he explained in a past interview that Roddenberry was very against the casting and didn’t like his bald head:

“Gene didn’t like Patrick Stewart. Gene didn’t like the idea of ​​a bald Englishman taking over, putting himself in William Shatner’s shoes. He said that pretty quickly. Now, I shouldn’t say he didn’t like Patrick. He recognized how much he was wonderful actor Patrick, but he just didn’t match his image of what the captain should be.”

But, in the end, Berman was able to convince Roddenberry to cast Stewart in the role, which is the best decision they could have made for the series.

Stewart also said he is a good friend Ian McKellen “He almost physically stopped him” from joining the series, saying: “When I told him I was going to sign the contract, he almost physically stopped me from doing it. NO!’ He said. «No, you don’t have to do that. You must not. You have too much important theater work to do. You can’t throw it away to make TV. You can not. NO!'”

But Stewart did it anyway, and the world of Star Trek is a better place for it.

Via: Insider