A Surprising Next Gen Cast Member Gave Star Trek's Patrick Stewart Major Insecurity
Sir Patrick Stewart is a legend of stage and screen. By the time he took the defining role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," he had spent decades on the stage as an esteemed member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He won the Laurence Olivier Award in 1979 for his performance in "Antony and Cleopatra," and by the time he stepped foot on the Starship Enterprise he had already appeared in films like John Boorman's "Excalibur," David Lynch's "Dune," and Tobe Hooper's "Lifeforce."
So, when you hear that this absolute madman, this revered actor's actor, approached his role in "The Next Generation" with anything but the full confidence he's always projected as a performer ... well, it makes you question everything you think you know to be true. That goes double when you find out the reason for his insecurities.
There was one member of the cast that really shook him to his core. Who could that possibly be? Maybe it's his number one, Mr. Jonathan Frakes? Riker certainly knew how to dramatically sit in a chair and would prove to be something of a Renaissance man with a talent for directing as well as acting, but no, it wasn't Frakes.
It was probably LeVar Burton, then. He delivered a powerhouse performance in "Roots" and taught entire generations that it was cool to read. But, nope, not Geordi either.
Would you believe that the person to put the fear of God into one of the most respected actors of all time was ... Wesley Crusher? Well, it was. Stewart says so himself in his new memoir "Making It So."
Teenage confidence and actor nerves collide
It wasn't Wil Wheaton's incredible, all-time great child performance in "Stand By Me" that threw Stewart for a loop. It was his adolescent confidence.
Now, it turns out that Stewart was already nervous taking on such a high-profile and very public role, essentially continuing the legacy of Gene Roddenberry and taking the mantle of captain from William Shatner. In his memoir, Stewart says that during the first season he probably came across as "the dreariest person to be around" because he was concerned with getting everything right that he did little but prep for his role. "The truth is, I was terrified that I wasn't up for the job."
And then he met Wheaton, who had all the swagger of a young teen riding high on the success of his previous work:
"I felt that the teen-on-the-Enterprise concept was a little gimmicky, but I was also put off by Wil's adolescent self-assurance. To me, he initially came off as cocky. But as I examined my feelings, I realized that they were not really about Wil or some notion that he should know his place as a juvenile actor — they reflected my own vulnerability. In those first weeks, I wished I had Wil's confidence."
It's worth noting that by the end of the series, Stewart and Wheaton were very close and Wheaton has said on multiple occasions that his "Star Trek" family helped him weather the toxic home life he was enduring in his teenage years. His departure from the show was shady as all hell, thanks to some plotting by a nasty producer.
Still, it's funny to think of Captain Jean-Luc Picard jealous of Wesley Crusher, of all people. That should put a smile on any Trekkie's face.