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Monday, August 18, 1997

FILM:

Versatile veteran Stewart strives to make evil characters sympathetic and watchableBy Stephanie Sheh

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

For seven years he played television's upright and honorable starship captain, exploring unknown galaxies and "making things so." For many, Patrick Stewart is Jean Luc Picard, but the veteran Shakespearean actor reminds us of his versatility as he takes on the role of villainous Ralph Bentley in this summer's "Masterminds."

Bentley attempts the perfect crime by designing the security system for an upscale private school, then taking over the school and kidnapping the children of the world's richest families. Everything goes as planned until Bentley meets delinquent Ozzie.

"Perhaps there's one thing that characterizes all bad guys, whether it's in a 400-year-old verse masterpiece or 20th-century movie," Stewart says. "No matter how bad they are, there has to be an aspect of them that an audience can identify with or sympathize with or in some way understand why they are doing what they're doing, because if someone is just relentlessly awful why do we want to spend two hours in the (theater) with them?

"I remember years and years and years ago reading an interview with Lawrence Olivier in which he said when he's playing a villain ... the first thing he always looks for are the good things about the guy ­ what's attractive, what's nice, what's sexy, what's appealing ­ and emphasizes those things," Stewart continues.

What is appealing about Bentley is his sense of humor and fun, confidence in his success and what Stewart calls "finger-licking pleasure" in what he's doing. Bentley is so charismatic in a way that Stewart wanted a little part of each audience member secretly hoping that Bentley would get away with his crime.

But initially, the overly confident and obnoxious character wasn't British. Bentley was originally German, then American. Stewart had just come from playing an American though, so he and the writer toyed with the idea of making him English.

"I meet these Englishmen who work in the United States and all they ever do is complain about the United States," Stewart says. "They just bitch about it and it just gets up my nose so much. And I thought it would be fun to play a character like this ­ an Englishman who's having a very successful career, who does nothing but bitch about the United States."

Stewart is playing another villain this summer in the blockbuster "Conspiracy Theory." Stewart's affinity for playing villains isn't new, but playing two bad guys back-to-back was merely a coincidence. In fact, Stewart constantly strives to play different types of characters. The opportunity to be someone else was what appealed to him as an actor.

"Early on in my career, I always tried to push the parameters as wide as possible," Stewart says. "I always felt that the biggest compliment that somebody could pay me was to not know that it was me in a piece of work. I enjoyed putting on disguises and finding a different way to walk, a different way of speaking and so forth."

Stewart is currently filming "Moby Dick" in Australia. His next two films, which will be out early next year, are the independent film "Safe House," in which he plays an American ex-CIA agent, and the British film "Dead Savage," in which he is a tulip grower.

"A huge percentage of pleasure that I get in my work comes out of the variety of my work. There's a kind of restlessness about me as an actor. I don't want to settle," Stewart says. "I settled for seven years, though I hope that that character was always growing, but now it's something that's almost slightly manic. I think about having to find something which is different as possible from the last thing I did."

This is one reason why he chose the outrageous role in the film "Jeffrey" as his first project after the Star Trek series ended. It gave him an opportunity to do something very different from Picard.

"Because for so many years I was associated with some particular role and series, I am now having a lot of fun playing games with the audience that watched 'The Next Generation,'" Stewart confesses.

Since Stewart has played the captain of the Starship Enterprise for so long, many viewers find it difficult to distinguish the actor from the character. The actor admits that he has trouble drawing the line himself.

"The longer that I played him, more and more of myself went into the role until I no longer know now where the character and the actor separate," Stewart says. "I would not say I am Jean Luc Picard, but there is no way of defining the line that divides us."

Now that the series has ended, Stewart is not only free to play different characters, but he is also no longer confined to working and living in Hollywood.

"I am now able to spend more time in England. The series kept me here for seven years and it's no real hardship living in Hollywood, but I do miss England and this year I returned to do my first piece of English work for 10 years in this movie," Stewart says. "It's just grand to be back and I hope to be doing more work there in the future. I've always thought myself lucky to be working. If it's in Northern Australia in mid-winter or here in Hollywood, I'm happy to be doing the job."

FILM: "Masterminds" opens August 25 and "Conspiracy Theory" is now playing in theaters.

Columbia Pictures

Patrick Stewart is the villainous yet charismatic Ralph Bentley in "Masterminds."

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The Original Patrick Stewart News

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