By GustavoLeao / 13:10, 29 January 2010 / General Star Trek

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San Francisco Chronicle posted a new interview with Star Trek The Next Generation star Patrick Stewart and here are excerpts.

Q: You were just knighted during the 2010 New Year's Honour services, so now you're Sir Patrick Stewart. You have a long and distinguished stage career, but would you have been knighted had you not played Capt. Jean-Luc Picard?

A: (Long pause.) It is a result. I'm grateful to you for making me reflect on that. Because the cumulative result of "Star Trek" and the "X-Men" ... when I went back to the U.K. after 15 years away, I went and did an Ibsen play ("The Master Builder"). ... Not a writer that fills theaters. What "Star Trek" did was to take me out of the world of being an elitist Shakespearean actor with a very small audience, and it put me on an international stage. ... After the role ended, I was able to mount stage projects that I never would have been able to do before.

Q: I know William Shatner went through a period where he hated being Capt. Kirk. What about you? Ever resent being identified with Jean-Luc Picard?

A: No, I'm grateful. I did a one-man show that did quite well, "A Christmas Carol." ... We sold the first week on Broadway through the "Star Trek" fan clubs (laughs). That was the marketing! And they filled the place. It doesn't matter why they come. ... Ian and I, we shared a dressing room for seven months (in 2009) doing "Waiting for Godot." I do think we've been significantly creating a new audience for live theater.

The full interview is here.