Patrick Stewart 'was a true gentleman,' says Canadian who worked with him | Hanomansing Live

Let's bring in someone who not only knew Patrick, but also worked with him. Craig Thompson is a Canadian film producer. He collaborated with Patrick on a couple of projects, and we've reached him in Stratford, Ontario. So first of all, sorry for your loss, and thanks for talking to us on what must be a difficult day. How are you reacting to the news? Well... Recollecting my time working with Patrick Stewart, Sir Patrick Stewart on two films, he was a true gentleman. And what struck me the most about Patrick is, despite his fame, he remained humble about his roots. In fact, he grew up in poverty in Yorkshire. And Shakespeare, the theatre, was his escape, because he talked very openly about growing up in a household where Where he witnessed domestic violence. And for him that was the cause that uh supported his philanthropy that was mentioned earlier over the years but Shakespeare was his escape thanks to a teacher who recognized the talent in him but he was a true gentleman and you know the he treated everybody with respect and that also transferred onto the screen because the role that he played as Jean-Luc Picard drew upon his real uh real personality. Tell us more, and you've certainly done a nice job describing it to this point, but more about what it was like to work with him, because, you know, both stage and screen, it's very easy for people to become kind of, you know, believe their news releases, right? And kind of, you know, don't deal with me. I'm kind of concentrating on my art here. It sounds like he wasn't like that. No, he was quite the opposite. He wanted to know everybody's name on the crew. He treated everybody with respect. And when we were shooting with him at his countryside property near Oxford in England, I remember very vividly after our catered lunch, he helped us wash up the dishes in the kitchen. So it was just a regular guy. And he wanted to know. In fact, I was from I'm from Stratford. And of course, he's a huge Shakespearean actor, so he had lots of questions about the Stratford Festival and things like that. But he was a regular guy who was very grateful for the opportunities that he had in life and in his career. What do you hope his legacy will be? Well, I think that, for one, on a professional level, I think without Star Trek The Next Generation, we have to ask, would we have the Star Trek franchise today? Because that show started long before reboots of series. And many people credit his role as Jean-Luc Picard as reigniting the passion. And the fandom for the series and the series itself, the storylines are very Shakespearean in their in their methodology and their storytelling. And I think those stories are more important today than ever before. So I think professionally he can be credited for the Star Trek franchise, its longevity. But also as a human being, he transcended into the world of theater. I mean, his last two projects, one... During COVID, he was reciting the entire catalog of Shakespeare's sonnets. So I think the lesson that he leaves behind is that art is a very important way of not only escape, but describing the conditions of the world that we live in now. He was a true passion, passionate person for the arts. You've done such a beautiful job describing him and what we hope his legacy will be, Craig. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me, Ian. Craig Thompson, Canadian film producer.