INTERVIEW
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A STERLING CHARACTER
Patrick Stewart is easily one of “our favourite actors”, who left our shores to show the Americans what real acting is all about. With an outstanding career in the Royal Shakespeare Company behind him he went on a voyage of discovery as the captain of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation to become one of the most famous faces on theplanet.
Brandon Judell spoke to him about his new film, Jeffrey, which
unfortunately hasn’t made it to the Edinburgh Film Festival as was
hoped. We should see it before the year is out.
“I am not the archetypal leading man. This is mainly for one reason. As you may have noticed, I have no hair,” Patrick Stewart humbly admitted a
few years ago.
On a more serious note, he told the graduating class of Pomona College
this past June that “it is what you do from now on that will either move
our civilization forward a few tiny steps, or else… begin to march us
steadily backward.”
What Captain Picard of Star Trek: The Next Generation has done is trade in his space togs for a sweater over the shoulders and a lover who’s a chorus boy in Cats. This star of the sci-fi institution that ran for seven seasons and was the highest-rated syndicated show in TV history is now indeed leading his Trekkie fans to parts of the universe few have ever envisioned _ and they’ve envisioned quite a bit in the past.
His Sterling in the film Jeffrey is a flamboyant interior decorator who
prowls the streets as a Pink Panther, protecting his fellow gay man, when he’s not shopping or attending the opera. A sample Sterling line: “I was watching these two guys on Nightline on Gay Pride Day, and one of them said, ‘I’m Bob Wheeler and I’m a surgeon. And my lover is an attorney. And we’d like to show America that all gays aren’t limp-wristed, screaming queens. There are gay truck drivers and gay cops and gay lumberjacks.’ And I just thought, ‘Ooh, get her.’ ”
Attired in a very expensive grey flannel sports jacket, a collar-less shirt, grey slacks, light brown socks, and exquisitely soft brown leather shoes, Stewart immediately starts off our interview reprimanding us for even suggesting he’d have second thoughts about playing a gay
man. “I’m not quite sure why you see the role as controversial,” he
insisted. “I can see that the film might be controversial. In fact, it
damn well is controversial.
Some people who may not know what’s in store for them are going to be a
little surprised by what they encounter. But I only saw a cracking good role. One of the best roles I’ve ever had, and it just happened to be a gay man in a rather provocative movie about gay men and AIDS.”
Stewart, who was a rather unknown entity to the American masses until he
travelled into the future for them, did entertain the PBS crowd at one
time in such mini-series as I, Claudius; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,
and Smiley’s People. His film efforts include Robin Hood: Men in Tights,
Excalibur, Dune and, of course, Star Trek: Generations. Currently, he’s
outdoors in Central Park, New York, starring as Prospero in The Tempest.
So is he worried about how his fans will react? Is he apprehensive about
US homophobia having any effect on his career?
“Homophobia I don’t think is localized just in the United States,” Stewart instructs, “although if you were to read the wit and wisdom of
Jesse Helms in the last couple of weeks you might be inclined to think
it is. Actually, in a way, it’s a kind of blessing because Jeffrey could
not be released at a more appropriate time than when the unspeakable
Helms is making these statements.” After a quick pause, he exclaims
enthusiastically, “I’m glad to say Jeffrey is in your face, isn’t it? It
really is… The first time I saw the film, even though I knew what was
in the film, I gasped more than once. But then I have to cast my mind to
the first day of rehearsal,” Stewart says. “Six of us in a room. The six
principal protagonists: writer, director, four actors. Three of us gay.
Three of us straight. None of us really knew one or another at all.”
“We’d been together about half an hour, talking rather nervously. We
were going to read the script when Steven Weber suddenly grabbed hold of
Michael Weiss and kissed him on the mouth and said, ‘THERE I’VE DONE IT.
I DONE IT. I’VE GOT IT OVER WITH.’ ”
“That was the moment everyone was most terrified of. The first kiss, how
it would be. Steven, who is marvellous in the movie, his gesture at that
moment was absolutely appropriate because not only did it make us laugh, but it brought out into the open all of that heterosexual nervousness about what it would be like when the moment actually had come.”
Three gay? Three straight? And which group did Stewart belong to? “I
can’t speak for the others, but in recent interviews, certainly with the
gay media, to my surprise, it’s been put to me that I might be gay.
There’s a genuine body of opinion that I am. Well, I explained that I’m
not as far as I’m aware. Nevertheless, it’s a kind of a held body of
opinion in the gay community. ”
“You know I found myself curiously flattered by this. I’m serious. I’m
not sure why but I do feel flattered by it. Perhaps in a way, it’s one
of those things that makes my casting in Jeffrey so appropriate.”
Sterling, probably couldn’t agree more. When asked which group he’s
marching with on Gay Pride Day, Sterling replies, “Gay Men Who Need a
Cigarette.” Puff on that, Trekkies.
Brandon Judell
