Actor Patrick Stewart is spilling the beans on the time he lost his cool on the set of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
The 83-year-old celebrity recalled the blow-up in a recently released excerpt from his new book, “Making It So: A Memoir.” Stewart said he initially didn’t get along with his “Star Trek” co-stars because he didn’t believe they were taking their roles seriously.
“My castmates doubled over in laughter when they flubbed multiple takes and, in rehearsals, they sometimes ad-libbed things that weren’t in the script to make their lines funnier,” Stewart wrote, per The Hollywood Reporter.
“My experiences at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre had been intense and serious. Naturally, we enjoyed a bit of levity, but in general we knew our time was limited and we didn’t fool around.”
He continued, “On the TNG set, I grew angry with the conduct of my peers, and that’s when I called that meeting in which I lectured the cast for goofing off and responded to Denise Crosby’s, ‘We’ve got to have some fun sometimes, Patrick,’ comment by saying, ‘We are not here, Denise, to have fun.'”
The actor said the incident is only funny now that so much time has passed.
“In retrospect, everyone, me included, finds this story hilarious. But, in the moment, when the cast erupted in hysterics at my pompous declaration, I didn’t handle it well,” he said. “I didn’t enjoy being laughed at. I stormed off the set and into my trailer, slamming the door.”
Stewart said he was “sulking for a while” in his trailer before co-stars Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner came to talk it out. The actor recalled Spiner saying, “Everything’s okay. People respect you, but I think you misjudged the situation here.”
“He and Jonathan acknowledged that yes, there was too much goofing around and that it needed to be dialed back. But they also made it clear how off-putting it was — and not a case study in good leadership — for me to try to resolve the matter by lecturing and scolding the cast,” Stewart continued in the excerpt.
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“I had failed to read the room, imposing RSC behavior on people accustomed to the ways of episodic television — which was, after all, what we were shooting.”
The actor said it took time to learn to be a “good colleague,” but eventually the cast of “The Next Generation” became like family.
“It took me that entire first season to relax and thaw out from an uptight Englishman to a loose, amiable colleague given to quasi-American behavior but, bit by bit, I got there,” Stewart said. “Chance had thrown me into a company that was as generous and funny as it was talented. Our mutual respect grew over time and into friendship and ultimately, a feeling of family.”
“Making It So” was released on October 3.