British
actor Patrick Stewart. Source: HWT Image Library
Mikey Cahill, The Herald Sun, reports
What you don’t know about Sir Patrick Stewart, aka Charles Xavier in the X-Men series, Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, aka Avery Bullock in American Dad, is that he spent his 21st birthday in Australia.
Melbourne, to be precise.
“The only thing I recall about my 21st birthday was my party,” he begins in those gloriously distinguished English tones. “There were five of us sharing a huge flat in Toorak. Vivien Leigh came along and I recently discovered a gold silk handkerchief that Vivien gave me for my birthday and for years and years it still had the smell of perfume on it. The smell has now gone, it’s 50 odd years ago.”
Indeed, Stewart is the ripe young age of 71, the most switched-on septuagenarian you’re ever likely to meet. He is in town for Oz Comic-Con along with Stan Lee (original creator of Spiderman, The Hulk, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Thor) Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones, Stargate: Atlantis), Julie Benz (Dexter), Mitch Peleggi (The X-Files, Sons of Anarchy), Sean Maher (Firefly, Serenity) and plenty more.
Lee, now a whopping 91-years-old, was supposed to be arrive in town today but he was stopped at US customs because of an issue they had with his medication, medication the comic luminary simply can’t fly without.
Stewart couldn’t be happier about the news.
“I get 12 hours to think of ways I can take the piss out of Stan. He is a joker and a dear friend and I can not wait to start making fun of him."
Perhaps Stewart can prime Lee with a tweet? If he was on Twitter, that is.
There is a fake Twitter account @APatrickStewart that responds to every tweet with “Make it so.”
“I am about to enter the world of social networking. I have resisted for years but some influential people in my life have persuaded me,” he says. “My twitter account is not yet active. My FaceBook account is which means the dozen fake accounts have had to go away. It wasn’t until I sat down in my agent’s office and she showed me how many people were claiming to be me that I thought it was time to get on social media.”
Stewart can be forgiven for not jumping on the social media bandwagon, he has worked incredibly hard throughout an esteemed career and must wonder why he needs to add tweeting to his repertoire.
“I worked for 7 years on Star Trek and for eight years on three films (X-Men) and both experiences had a profound effect on me and changed every single aspect of my life. I’ve never worked harder at any job and I once mixed cement for a champion bricklayer … by hand.”
The fans will reward him for his diligence by turning up this weekend, probably armed with an array and weird and weirder gifts.
“The most difficult ones to accept are the artworks. I’m an enthusiastic collector and I have a decent collection including Arthur Boyd oils. Sometimes I get portraits of me in a state of undress,” he says, followed by a dry English laugh.
“I have been handed many letters over the years where people tell me how much Star Trek has effected them in a good way. The people who write the most serious ones never put a return address on them. The ones who one does not want to contact are the ones that say ‘If you want to (contact me) you can!” he says.
When asked which quote people always want to hear, Stewart responds with something unexpected, unless you’re a fan of the episode he did of Extras with Ricky Gervais. “The one that people always ask me to do is “I’ve seen everything”,” he says, making my day.
Lastly, don’t expect Stewart to be signing autographs this weekend with “Sir” in front of his name. “I didn’t adjust my signature when I became Sir…I don’t think that would be coooool.”
Oz Comic-Con, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Sat-Sun 9am-6pm. www.facebook.com/OzComicCon
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