The role Ian McKellen begged Patrick Stewart to turn down: “He’s long forgiven me”
There’s something so lovely about discovering that two actors are best friends, and one of the most iconic pairings in Hollywood has long been Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart.
The pair both gained experience as actors by working in the theatre when they were young, which is how they first met. Both were members of the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company, although they were predominantly in different productions, only remaining casual friends for quite some time.
It wouldn’t be until decades later, when they’d both appear in the 2000 film X-Men, that they’d become best pals. “We had adjoining trailers,” Stewart told Wired. “On those kind of movies, you spend more time sitting in your trailer than you do in front of the camera. So, Ian and I hung out together, drinking tea – and maybe in the afternoon, something a little stronger – and we got to know one another.”
Years before that, however, both actors would be staunch patrons of the stage, and to McKellen, the idea of graduating from the theatre to the screen was a prospect he wasn’t interested in. More than that, he believed that the sanctity of stage performance should be preserved, and he actively tried to discourage Stewart from taking on a role that would go on to cement him as an icon.
So, way before McKellen unforgettably stepped into the shoes of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings series, he was still more interested in what stage productions could offer him, which is why he advised Stewart not to accept an offer to appear on TV.
It was the late ‘80s, and Stewart had already made his fair share of appearances on the small screen, appearing as Vladimir Lenin in Fall of Eagles and narrating several episodes of Jackanory, but the chance to play Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation was a whole new ballpark.
McKellen wasn’t sure that this was a good idea for Stewart. “He’s long forgiven me my advice not to risk a solid career on the British stage by falling for an uncertain future in Star Trek,” he wrote in a celebratory piece for the actor’s 80th birthday published in The Guardian. “How he got that job is a prime example of how luck can be a lady, and it will be a riveting chapter in the memoir he must write. He has so much to tell.”
Of course, Star Trek was huge for Stewart, and his performance would really catapult him into the mainstream. In his memoir, Making It So, Stewart recalled just how anti-Star Trek McKellen really was. “When I told him I was going to sign the contract, he almost bodily prevented me from doing so. ‘No!’ he said. ‘No, you must not do that. You must not. You have too much important theatre work to do. You can’t throw that away to do TV. You can’t. No!’”
Stewart never gave up the stage, even when he found success with Star Trek, and he has since continued to play many classic Shakespearean roles, much to McKellen’s relief.
