Movies - TV
Patrick Stewart Still Has Regrets About Star Trek’s Gene Roddenberry
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
Patrick Stewart played the beloved Captain Jean-Luc Picard on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” However, its creator, Gene Roddenberry, apparently didn’t think much of the actor.
In his autobiography “Making It So: A Memoir,” Stewart shared that Roddenberry routinely ignored him and apparently never wanted the actor on the show.
Despite the creator’s negative attitude toward him, Stewart admitted some regret after Roddenberry passed in 1991 at 70, right at the beginning of “Next Generation” Season 5.
Stewart shared, “When Gene Roddenberry died suddenly in October 1991, shorty after his seventieth birthday, I was deeply saddened.[...] I found myself missing his presence.”
He added, “For all his wariness of me, he had created the magnificent ‘Star Trek’ universe of which I was now privileged to be a part, and his guiding hand offered me reassurance.”
Stewart was aware of his casting controversy, but he said, “I do wish that Gene had lived long enough to see how ‘Star Trek’ and Picard himself have continued to deepen and grow.”