Things You Didn't Know About Patrick Stewart

Actors often put a part of their own personality into the characters they play, but sometimes the process works in reverse, too. For Stewart, playing Picard definitely had an impact. He explained how in an interview with the BBC in 2011:

One of the things that I've come to understand is that as I talk a lot about Picard, what I find is I'm talking about myself. There was a sort of double action that occurred. In one sense, Picard was expanding like this, and at the same time, he was also growing closer and closer to me as well, and in some respect, I suppose even had some influence on me. I became a better listener than I ever had been as a result of playing Jean-Luc Picard because it was one of the things that he does terrifically well.

Star Trek: The Next Generation fans definitely pronounce the word "data" a specific way, but that pronunciation has permeated the English-speaking zeitgeist, and that's largely due to Stewart. The way he pronounced the name throughout the series definitely had an impact. Brent Spiner, who played Commander Data, explained that Stewart made the change during the cast's first table-read.

There was even an exchange on the show that addressed this, which went like this:

Dr. Katherine Pulaski: Dah-ta, look at this.

Lt. Commander Data: [looking slightly confused] Day-ta.

Dr. Katherine Pulaski: What?

Lt. Commander Data: My name. It is pronounced "Day-ta."

Dr. Katherine Pulaski: Oh?

Lt. Commander Data: You called me "Dah-ta."

Dr. Katherine Pulaski: [laughing] What's the difference?

Lt. Commander Data: One is my name. The other is not.

Patrick Stewart's son, Daniel, appeared in The Next Generation's "The Inner Light," which is considered by many fans to be one of the best episodes of the entire series.

In the episode, Picard is overtaken by a probe that places him inside a simulation, causing him to experience an entire lifetime as a man called Kamin. Within the probe's simulation, Kamin has a son, and that son is played by Daniel.

There are numerous scenes throughout the X-Men franchise that show Professor Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr (AKA Magneto) playing chess. They often discuss important things while doing so, and the scenes dramatize their deep bond. Interestingly, neither Sir Patrick Stewart nor Sir Ian McKellen knew how to play before they began filming X-Men.

While they could have simply faked it for the cameras, they didn't. A chess master was brought in to teach them how to play. Stewart explained the situation in an interview with Godfrey Powell:

Yes, [director] Bryan Singer set up a scene where Ian and I were playing chess. He said, "Okay, why don't you all just make some moves." I said, "Well, I don't know how to play." He said, "Ian?" Sir Ian said he didn't know how to play either. Bryan rolled his eyes and said, "Get someone on the set. We just need to believe that they are making the right moves." The next day we arrive on the set, and yep, there's someone there who knows chess. A Canadian Grandmaster. I told him you are so overqualified for this job. He said, (whispering) "I've never been on a set before." And he stayed all day.

Sir Patrick Stewart has been a vocal supporter of assisted suicide. During an interview with The Sunday Times, he explained his position and support for Dying with Dignity, a UK group campaigning to change the law banning the practice. He said that it "should be a right" and that "A lot of it has to do with my age." He explained:

I had a heart procedure five years ago. I was 70 last year and there is something about achieving threescore years and 10, isn’t there? Then I had a family member who had been very ill, and quite recently I’d heard the story of an illness and a death. I have the strong feeling that, should the time come for me, having had no role in my birth, I would like there to be a choice I might make about how I die.

There are hundreds of articles online detailing the roles actors didn't take, and for Stewart, it was the role of Jafar in Disney's Aladdin. That role ended up going to Jonathan Freeman, but it was first offered to Stewart.

He declined because he had a scheduling conflict, but regretted not taking it.