Patrick Stewart back in "Star Trek: Picard": "I'm ashamed not to speak French"

At 79, he played almost everything. A great actor in Elizabethan theater and British television, Patrick Stewart has more than 50 feature films to his credit. If he is particularly renowned for his interpretation of Professor X in the saga "X-Men", he owes his popularity to the role of the captain of the Enterprise vessel, the Frenchman Jean-Luc Picard, whom he has camped in series and films "Star Trek" between 1987 and 2002. He has just agreed to take over the role for the series "Star Trek: Picard", broadcast on Amazon Prime Video and centered around the 92-year-old character. We met him in London, where, still as elegant and mischievous, he concluded the interview with a "goodbye" in French, accompanied by a wink.

Why did you take over the role of Jean-Luc Picard more than thirty years after taking on the role for the first time?

PATRICK STEWART. I presented the first episode of the series Wednesday evening ( Editor's note: January 15 ) at the Odeon-Theater in London. It made me funny, because twenty-five years ago, I was on this same stage for the preview of "Star Trek Generations". This role changed my career… But when I was offered this new series, I hesitated a lot, I didn't feel too much. Then everyone around me said, "You have to do it, you can't miss this ..."

What does it mean for a comedian to play the same character for as many years?

It was a unique experience as an actor, in the progressive development and construction of the character of Picard. If I did not want to go back to the start, it is because, from my point of view, I was done with "Star Trek" since "Nemesis" in 2002. But the creators of the series have on the one hand everything redesigned by breaking the codes of the franchise and, on the other hand, designed the series by refocusing it on Picard's relations with the universe of Star Trek. Everything is questioned. It blew me away and convinced me.

What is so different about Jean-Luc Picard in this new series?

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Everything changed for him. At the start of the story, he is no longer part of Starfleet, the organization responsible for gathering information on the universe and the planets of the Federation, which is now undermined by underlying conflicts. Picard retired from the game, he lives in his castle in Burgundy, takes care of his vines in the company of two Vulcan friends and his dog. But he is dissatisfied, furious, and he feels guilty, he has the impression of having acted badly with the Federation but also with his old friend, the Android Data, because he feels responsible for his death.

How was it to find Picard after so many years?

I had the impression that I had been preparing to shoot this series for over thirty years, that Jean-Luc Picard had never left me. But it was still a challenge to take on a character who has aged so much, who has changed a lot, who must adapt to a world completely different from what he knew.

Since you no longer interpret it, Picard has a parallel “life”, on social networks in particular, where it remains totally cult. Do you follow his virtual adventures?

His success, the numerous diversions of which he is the subject - we even made him sing a Christmas song! - amuse me a lot. It's very flattering, I'm delighted that it is so popular.

In "Star Trek", there have always been many political messages, notably on immigration and integration. It is still up to date ?

It went a long way, I was once suggested, when I lived in Los Angeles, to take American nationality and run for Senate elections - even though I am a member of the Labor Party in the United Kingdom For years. So yes, this series is still militant in a certain way and I want it, I who committed my first act of incivility at 5 years old, while I was demonstrating, in 1945, alongside my father!

Picard is French, have you developed affinities with France?

We made some serious resolutions earlier this year with my wife. She is passionate about Italian Renaissance painting, so she will devote herself to Italy, and I want to seriously learn French. I am ashamed not to speak your language after so many years of playing French. If we meet again for the second season of "Picard" I promise that we will do the interview in French.