Star Trek executives originally wanted Patrick Stewart to audition with a wig. According to Insider, Stewart has revealed in his new autobiography Making It So that he had a wig shipped from London specifically for his final Star Trek: The Next Generation audition.
“Right as I was boarding my plane at Heathrow, my London agent called Sheila at home and notified her that the Paramount people had been in touch, asking if I owned a hairpiece, and if I did, could I bring it to the audition?” he explained. “Sheila diligently retrieved my ‘audition wig’ from its space in my wardrobe and boxed it up, whereupon a British Airways representative collected it and placed it on a later flight to Los Angeles.”
That’s right — Sir Patrick Stewart sent his wig on a flight all the way to Los Angeles. “I do not know if my hairpiece flew first class,” he added. “But by Sunday, it had arrived, and I drove back to LAX to retrieve it. It was packed in my briefcase when I drove to the Paramount Studios lot on Monday morning.”
According to Stewart, he only got to wear the wig for his audition, which consisted of reading a single scene. Executives visited him in his dressing room shortly afterward, by which time he had removed the hairpiece.
“Shit, here comes the bad news,” he recalled thinking. “But all they did was thank me once more, wish me a good day, and take off.”
Stewart was informed that the impromptu visit had been to see the actor without the wig, and the executives quickly decided to can the wig in favor of his more natural look. Executive producer Rick Berman offered more details about that fateful audition.
“Patrick came in, and somebody was there to help him and he put on the wig,” he told Foundation Interviews. “And we brought him to read for [president of Paramount Network Television] John Pike at the studio... and at the end, Pike said, ‘Go with the English guy, but lose the wig.’ And that was the best three words we could have heard.”
“He knew that Patrick was bald, and he had seen all the photographs of him, and we had played him a tape of Patrick’s clips of his work,” he added. “And that was the story of casting Patrick, which I think was the most critical element of the show. That was the greatest sales point for The Next Generation.”
Want to read more about Star Trek? Check out the ‘original’ ending of Star Trek: Picard as well as why Star Trek should embrace its silly side.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
