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 audition for the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. So, when he initially went in to audition for the role, we went in wearing a hairpiece that his then-wife Sheila Falconer had to ship to him from London to Los Angeles. He writes:
“Right as I was boarding my plane at Heathrow, my London agent called Sheila at home and notified her that the Paramount people had been in touch, asking if I owned a hairpiece, and if I did, could I bring it to the audition? Sheila diligently retrieved my ‘audition wig’ from its space in my wardrobe and boxed it up, whereupon a British Airways representative collected it and placed it on a later flight to Los Angeles.”
“I do not know if my hairpiece flew first class. But by Sunday, it had arrived, and I drove back to LAX to retrieve it. It was packed in my briefcase when I drove to the Paramount Studios lot on Monday morning.”
Stewart’s audition consisted of only reading for one scene and he managed to impress the people in the room. So much so, that they went to the actor’s dressing room after the audition to see what the actor looked like without the wig, with his natural bald head. Stewart recalled the experience, saying:
“Shit, here comes the bad news, but all they did was thank me once more, wish me a good day, and take off.”
Stewart was then informed that the executives whom he auditioned for visited him so that they could see him with his bald head. The wig didn’t seem to work, but they were fine with his acting, with his bald head, and he landed the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry initially didn’t want Stewart in the role and producer Rick Berman explained in the past in an interview that Roddenberry was very much against the casting and he didn’t like his bald head:
"Gene did not like Patrick Stewart. Gene did not like the idea of a bald English guy taking over, stepping into the shoes of William Shatner. He aired that pretty quickly. Now, I shouldn't say that he didn't like Patrick. He acknowledged what a wonderful actor Patrick was, but he just wasn't his image of what the captain should be."
But, ultimately, Berman managed to convince Roddenberry to cast Stewart in the role, which is the best decision they could’ve made for the series.
Stewart also said his good friend Ian McKellen “almost bodily prevented” him from joining the series, saying: “When I told him I was going to sign the contract, he almost bodily prevented me from doing so. No!’ he said. ‘No, you must not do that. You must not. You have too much important theater work to do. You can’t throw that away to do TV. You can’t. No!'”
But, Stewart did it anyway, and the world of Star Trek is a better place for it.
Via: Insider