Captain Picard turns villain and loves it

Jeanne Wolf

Friday, Aug. 15, 1997 | 10 a.m.

Patrick Stewart is flashing a grin almost as bright as the shine from his trademark bald pate.

"I think it's high time that my image got fractured a little," he says. Stewart is obviously delighted at the prospect that his appearances in the thriller "Conspiracy Theory," opposite Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts, and the upcoming, action-filled "Masterminds," may finally give him some distance from Captain Jean Luc Picard.

He's deserting his heroic "Star Trek" persona to play a couple of bad guys - one menaces a school of children being held hostage, the other resorts to merciless violence to serve his own evil ends.

"I don't think Captain Picard would be at all distressed at the turn I'm taking," Stewart deadpans. "He's a very broad-minded man."

Stewart shrugs at the thought that no matter what role he plays audiences will still see him as the man in charge of the Enterprise. "I think that when I first walk in front of the camera they may think, 'Aha, Jean Luc,"' he admits, "but I hope movie-goers are smart enough to let go of that pretty quickly and it's my job as an actor to persuade them to. If they didn't, I'd go out and buy a razor blade and run a warm bath."

In fact, Stewart is chillingly convincing in "Conspiracy Theory" as the sinister Dr. Jonas who will stop at nothing to prevent a New York cabbie, played by Mel Gibson, from unlocking the secret behind the nightmarish memories which haunt him.

Before "Conspiracy Theory," he made another big screen foray into villainy in "Masterminds," trying to outfox the young hero played by Vincent Kartheiser ("Alaska," "Indian in the Cupboard"). Stewart is a former British intelligence agent and security consultant who takes over a private school and holds the students hostage for a multimillion-dollar ransom.

"I loved him," he says of his character Ralph Bentley. "At first, they wanted to make him German, then I tried to do him as an American, but it just wasn't working. Finally, I said, 'Look, let's make him British because when I'm English I know how to be obnoxious."'

"It's the only role I can recall playing when I'd crack myself up while I was doing it," he reveals. "I know that's a horrible admission to make but, even though he was a crook, he just made me giggle."

Ironically, although Stewart admits he chose the bad guy parts to prove his versatility, both "Conspiracy Theory" and "Masterminds" are being released within weeks of each other. "It was a conscious decision to put as much distance between me and the space suit as possible," he says, "but I had no idea that I'd be seen playing two villains simultaneously. Will this ruin my reputation?"

Stewart is suddenly serious. He wants to make it clear to all the "trekkers" who love him as Captain Picard that he isn't giving up his space suit. "I'm absolutely delighted that Jean Luc is still in my life," he says, "because, in fact, he's changed my life. As I developed the character, I looked at him and decided he had some excellent qualities - so I tried to borrow some of them. There has been this cross-fertilization of Patrick Stewart and Jean Luc Picard, and the edges are now blurred."

"The most important thing I learned from him was listening," he continues thoughtfully. "I was never a good listener for a large part of my life. I knew what I thought and I liked to talk about it. I always had a lot to say but I don't think I paid a lot of attention to what other people thought and said.

" That's one thing the captain is very good at. He's constantly saying, 'Tell me. I want to hear your thoughts.' He's a great listener and it's one of the thing things that makes him a wonderful leader. I've tried to use that approach in my daily life and, I can tell you, it makes for a much more pleasant existence."

Soon, Stewart will boldly go where no captain of the Enterprise has gone before. He's signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Paramount to both star and associate produce the next big screen "Star Trek" adventure, as well develop film and TV projects of his own.

"It's a novel experience," he admits. "Most actors are, in a sense, victims of their profession. We love it but we don't have a lot of control over what we do. There is a lot of stuff I want to produce from TV sitcoms and dramas to movies. I told the studio that this is not a vanity deal, I want to do some work."

Before Stewart returns to the set of "Star Trek" next March he has a couple of other items on his agenda. "Right now, I'm trying to kill a whale," he laughs, "and then I'm going to kill my wife."

Stewart is currently filming the re-make of the classic "Moby Dick," a USA Cable mini-series, playing the legendary role of Captain Ahab, and, this fall, he'll head for the Washington D. C. Shakespeare Theater to take the title role in "Othello."

He doesn't deny that both are daunting challenges. "Gregory Peck has had his stamp on the role of Captain Ahab for decades," he says, "and he'll be on our set because he's agreed to play Maple, the minister who delivers the sermon before the 'Pequod' sails.

"I went to see Greg the other day and we swapped Captain Ahab stories. He's totally enthusiastic about what we're doing. Of course, our mini-series is four hours long so we'll be able to put a lot more of Melville on the screen."

As for playing the tortured moor in "Othello," Stewart is taking a decidedly different approach. "I've wanted to play him since I was 14," he admits. "It was the first Shakespearean role that I truly identified with. But when my age and experience might have allowed me to have a go at the part, it was no longer acceptable for a white actor to do it in black face."

"Now, I've found a solution," he continues with a smile, "I'm playing Othello as a white middle-aged mercenary soldier - a gun for hire. The rest of the cast will be entirely made up of black American actors. I hope we've found a way to reverse the racial negative. We're not altering the text in any way but I hope we may shed new light on prejudice and racism and the relationships between blacks and whites."

And what can those legions of "trekkers" expect when Captain Picard returns in "Star Trek IX?" Stewart smiles at the question. "I think you'll see something that will be a bit lighter, a little sexier, maybe even a little romantic," he says. "We've done two very intense 'Star Treks' and I think it's time to take a different track."

He takes a beat before adding the line that would make Jean Luc proud. "But, of course, we still save the universe!"