Patrick Stewart Admits He Was a ‘Severe Bastard’ to His Star Trek: The Next Generation Co-Stars in Season 1

A few laps around the universe will mellow a guy, eh?

Star Trek: The Next Generation and Picard star Patrick Stewart writes in a new memoir that he was not always the avuncular, beloved presence he is known as today. Making It So: A Memoir includes a vignette about a time the Emmy-nominated actor lashed out at his TNG co-stars while shooting Season 1 of the sci-fi series.

Given his classical training and stints at such vaunted institutions as the Royal Shakespeare Company, “I could be a severe bastard,” he writes in an exclusive excerpt published by THR.

When Stewart became angry at what he felt was the cast’s lackadaisical attitude toward shooting the series, as well as co-star Denise Crosby’s (who played Tasha Yar) assertion that they had to have some fun, he recalls saying, “‘We are not here, Denise, to have fun.'” And when the cast couldn’t contain their laughter at his high-and-mighty attitude, “I didn’t handle it well,” he writes. “I stormed off the set and into my trailer, slamming the door.”

Longtime fans of the series have heard stories of Stewart’s early ire, which was blunted in this case when co-stars Jonathan Frakes (who played Will Riker) and Brent Spiner (who played Data) walked over to his trailer to talk things through. While the pair admitted that the cast was goofing around perhaps a little too much, Stewart writes, “they also made it clear how off-putting it was — and not a case study in good leadership — for me to try to resolve the matter by lecturing and scolding the cast. I had failed to read the room, imposing RSC behavior on people accustomed to the ways of episodic television — which was, after all, what we were shooting.”

Stewart, who would go on to play Jean-Luc Picard for seven TNG seasons, four movies and three seasons of Star Trek: Picard, adds that he now finds the entire memory “hilarious.”