Patrick Stewart: ‘I would like to play Cleopatra’

This proves to be just one of several instances of Stewart’s humility coming to the fore over the course of an hour-long conversation with journalist Samira Ahmed, filmed at our London Literature Festival. A man who has never forgotten his roots in working class West Yorkshire. Stewart talks about those early years, and the impact two people in particular had in steering him along the path to his six decade career as an actor on stage and screen; his schoolteacher Cecil Dormand and his first acting teacher Ruth Wynn Owen.

Joining us to celebrate the launch of his long-awaited memoir Making It So, Stewart goes on to discuss his lifelong passion for Shakespeare, the physicality of acting, the roles he’d still love to play, and how ignoring the advice of a trusted friend led him to portray the character with which he would become a household name. There are also heartwarming stories of interactions with fellow stars to enjoy, from his first film role alongside one of his acting heroes, Rod Steiger, to a first meeting with a global superstar that brought with it an unexpected level of personal pressure.

‘I found that I liked being somebody else much better than I liked being Patrick Stewart’