For Patrick Stewart, Jean-Luc Picard is 'the biggest thing that's ever happened to me'
LOS ANGELES — As the august space voyager Jean-Luc Picard, Patrick Stewart commanded the Starship Enterprise on and off across seven seasons of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," four feature films, and, after a two-decade pause, three seasons of "Picard." It's a role he took only because he was assured by confidants that "The Next Generation," which required a six-year contract, wouldn't run a year, freeing him to return to England and the theater.
The final season of "Picard," which concludes this week on Paramount+, brings down the curtain on the character and, in bringing back most of the original show's cast, "The Next Generation" saga as well. I spoke with Stewart, 82, a genial, funny, casually dapper gent, at the home he shares with his wife, singer Sunny Ozell — an old Spanish-style house on a leafy Los Angeles street, purchased just before the pandemic. ("I never thought I'd live in a house that had archways everywhere — no doors!" He counted six from where we were sitting.) Stewart had watched the finale that morning, and he had thoughts and more.
Q: Did you fall in love with Shakespeare before you decided to become an actor?
A: No. Because "fall in love" doesn't fit my experience. But something happened, and it happened the first time I held a copy of Shakespeare in my hand and read aloud. And that was
