The smooth Shakespearean style of Sir Patrick Stewart’s voice is mesmerizing as he discusses his love of technology.
Update: I’ve been informed by my colleagues that Stewart was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II this past New Year’s. That means he will now be referred to as Sir Patrick Stewart, and is at least 30% more badass.
Although Sir Patrick Stewart was a celebrated classical actor for many years, his bald pate has been a staple of nerd culture ever since he donned the skin tight uniform for the pilot of Star Trek: The Next Generation way back in 1987. Captain Picard was the thinking man’s foil to the more rough and tumble Captain Kirk of TOS, and his elegance prompted many a debate over who was the better Captain of the Enterprise. Stewart cemented his image as a science fiction icon by playing Professor Xavier in the X-Men movies. Even though his characters are often surrounded with high-tech gizmos and gadgets, how does an older gentlemen like Stewart react to the rise of technology in the real world? Very well, apparently.
“I love the internet,” he told PBS. “I’m learning more and more how to use it and how to access information.” He said that completing tasks like finding out the weather in L.A. in fifteen seconds or looking up a line of Shakespeare is “fantastic.”
Stewart extolled the wonders of Apple’s smartphone, likening it to part of his body. “My beautiful iPhone, which I never have out of my hand, and that I do everything with and that has become and extension of who I am.”
The one aspect of tech that he is wary of pursuing is gaming. “The only aspect of all of this that I have never taken to, partly because I do have an addictive temperament, and that is gaming,” he said with emphasis. “I have a stack of games, I’ve never taken the covers off of them, because I feel that if I do, I’m finished.” Insert all of the gravitas you can imagine Patrick Stewart giving that last phrase and he seems genuinely worried to get sucked into gaming.
The one thing that Stewart refuses to get into is Twitter. “I don’t Tweet. I’ve never Twittered,” he said with a shrug. “To reduce life to, how many? [looks off camera] 140. Just seems to me to be a little simplistic, maybe I like complexity and abstraction too much.”
I can listen to Patrick Stewart say anything, but when he talks about the rise of technology and his love of it, well, it’s even sweeter.
Source: Multiplayer
Published: Feb 2, 2010 06:37 pm