See Patrick Stewart's memoir cover and Star Trek -friendly title
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Patrick Stewart, the legendary actor of Star Trek and X-Men, received many offers from publishers and ghostwriters to produce his memoirs over the years. He turned nearly all of them down. "That never interested me because I would tell myself, 'If I'm going to tell my story, I will tell it. I don't need somebody else to tell it with me,'" Stewart, 82, explains to EW.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit in May 2020 and the world sheltered in place. Studios were shutting down, which meant the lead of Star Trek: Picard couldn't act. He had nothing to do but remain at home. That's when his agent approached him with the latest book offer, this one from Simon & Schuster. "We had an agreement that if I started and didn't like it or couldn't do it, I would repay my advance and walk away from it," Stewart says.
That didn't happen. EW can now exclusively reveal the official title and book cover for what the actor produced in the past couple years. Making It So, a play on one of the most famous phrases uttered by Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation, will hit shelves this Oct. 3. (Available now for pre-order.)
Simon and Schuster Patrick Stewart's memoir 'Making It So' hits book shelves October 2023
"From his acclaimed stage triumphs to his legendary onscreen work in the Star Trek and X-Men franchises, Sir Patrick Stewart has captivated audiences around the world and across multiple generations with his indelible command of stage and screen," the book's official description reads. "Now, he presents his long-awaited memoir, Making It So, a revealing portrait of an artist whose astonishing life — from his humble beginnings in Yorkshire, England to the heights of Hollywood and worldwide acclaim — proves a story as exuberant, definitive, and enduring as the author himself."
"Every moment of working on it has been thrilling for me because it was a brand-new experience," Stewart says.
The actor once considered writing something about the experience of writing his memoir, as he harkens back to a "totally unexpected" moment that occurred when he sat down at his computer for the first time to write.
"From the moment that I was sitting right where I am now and raised my hands to start typing the first sentence I was lost, and I didn't expect to be," he explains over Zoom from an upstairs room in his home. "It took me a while to realize how immersed I was. This will sound rather pretentious, but it would take some time for me to shift my head from my childhood, my teenage years, my first experiences as an actor, back to today and now and, what did I really want for supper?"
Gilbert Flores/Getty Images Patrick Stewart arrives at the premiere of 'Star Trek: Picard' season 3
Stewart's career spans six decades across stage and screen, beginning when he was a classically trained theater actor at England's Royal Shakespeare Company all the way to this year's Picard, which reunited Stewart with his Next Generation costars for the final season. He has four Emmy nominations, three Olivier Awards, one Grammy Award, and one Tony Award nomination under his belt, among other honors.
Even with such a coveted career, Stewart admits he's nervous to put Making It So out in the world. "We are beginning to put together a book release tour and where I will go, and all of it. I've never done anything like this before," he notes. "I've promoted movies and television, but never something that I was solely responsible for."
To quote another Picard phrase, "Things are only impossible until they're not."
Pre-orders for Making It So are now available through Simon & Schuster.
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