{"id":827592,"date":"2026-11-08T01:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T01:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/827592\/"},"modified":"2026-11-08T01:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T01:06:12","slug":"patrick-stewart-made-morality-seem-cool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/827592\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Stewart made morality seem cool"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the midterm election\u2019s \u201cBlue Tsunami\u201d redraws American political lines, there\u2019s been a parallel swing on social media. All the earnest liberal art that\u2019s been written off as cringey or out-of-date since the 2016 election suddenly started to feel a little more uplifting again. Celebratory West Wing clips<\/a> flooded the internet. The Democratic Party\u2019s official accounts posted election montages set to Hamilton<\/a> and The Greatest Showman<\/a>. The Hamilton tour cast<\/a> got in on the fun. Even Glee was reclaimed<\/a> as something empowering. If the insidious, irony-poisoned, amoral past few years can be summed up by \u201cAnakin Posting,\u201d<\/a> this new dawn of \u201clibbing out\u201d is embracing the idea that maybe trying to have an earnest impact on the world doesn\u2019t have to be embarrassing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a weird way, it\u2019s a perfect tribute to the late great Patrick Stewart, whose most famous roles<\/a> and personal politics were both defined by a classic, unwavering sense of right and wrong\u2014and the ability to look cool while imparting those moral lessons. Onscreen, Stewart defended marginalized teens as Professor Charles Xavier and championed intergalactic diplomacy as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Offscreen, he advocated for<\/a> women experiencing domestic violence and spoke out<\/a> for LGBTQ+ rights. He capped off his star-making seven-year run on Star Trek: The Next Generation by taking a supporting role in the AIDS-focused gay indie rom-com Jeffrey<\/a>. And after 2016, he considered becoming<\/a> a U.S. citizen specifically so he could have a greater role in the opposition to President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s not that unusual to see a Hollywood actor speak up for liberal causes, it does feel a little more notable coming from a straight, white British man born two months after Winston Churchill first became Prime Minister. Long before the idea of using your privilege for good became a mainstream concept, Stewart instinctively walked that walk. He first opened up in 2004<\/a> about the domestic abuse he witnessed against his mother growing up. \u201cAt that time, it was unusual for a man, particularly someone as famous and respected as Patrick, to speak so openly about domestic abuse,\u201d human rights lawyer Cherie Blair told The Guardian<\/a> after his death in October. \u201cHis courage in sharing such painful personal experiences helped to break the silence surrounding domestic violence and reminded us that its consequences extend far beyond the immediate victim to the children who witness it.\u201d Back in 2013<\/a>, Stewart explicitly called on men to join the movement to end violence against women, explaining, \u201cIn the same way that it was white men confronting white men in issues of civil rights in the United States, it needs to be men confronting men in the same way, on the issues of domestic violence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his work, that bold moral backbone is best embodied on The Next Generation. While Professor X fits the traditional archetype of a caring mentor who helps young people find their heroic purpose in the X-Men films, Captain Picard embodies that same sense of wisdom in a lead role, which is a much rarer combination. Where William Shatner\u2019s Captain Kirk was a swashbuckling golden boy who paired his own sense of morality with a cowboy swagger, Captain Picard is an erudite European diplomat who loves tea and archeology. It\u2019s the sort of character you\u2019d expect to be prissy comic relief, not a dashing leading man. But Stewart\u2019s Shakespeare-trained gravitas turned Picard into one of the defining TV icons of the \u201990s\u2014a heartthrob for some generations and a beloved father figure for others.<\/p>\n

Picard could be an aloof, imposing figure at times, particularly in the early seasons of the show. Yet he\u2019s driven by an unwavering sense of confidence and conviction that makes him cool\u2014not in the effortless way that Kirk is cool, but in a way where you can appreciate just how hard he\u2019s working to be a good person. It seems like it should be impossible to make rule-following and deep ethical consideration worthy of admiration and aspiration, but Stewart pulls it off by blending Picard\u2019s innate virtuousness with an open-minded curiosity and deep respect for others. In \u201cMeasure Of A Man,\u201d<\/a> he passionately argues for the rights of his android crewmember. In \u201cDarmok,\u201d<\/a> he finds a way to connect to an alien captain despite the fact that they communicate in entirely different ways. In \u201cDisaster,\u201d<\/a> he works through his lack of paternal instincts to protect three scared kids during a ship-wide malfunction.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a different sort of heroic archetype than the one that usually anchors sci-fi and fantasy, which is part of what makes Picard such an impactful role model, particularly in terms of what masculinity can look like. \u201cI used to get asked, \u2018In a fight between Kirk and Picard, who would win?\u2019\u201d Stewart told The Hollywood Reporter<\/a> in 2014. \u201cAnd my answer always was there wouldn\u2019t be a fight because Picard would negotiate his way around it. Picard saw force as a last resort. Absolute last resort.\u201d When Stewart returned to the role for the 2020 legacy sequel series Star Trek: Picard<\/a>, it was with an even warmer performance in a show that tackled everything from ICE raids to mental health struggles. The show, he was unashamed to say, left him in tears<\/a> over how movingly it wrapped up Picard\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

Indeed, much more so than the characters he played onscreen, Stewart\u2019s real-life personality was marked by a playfulness and openhearted emotionality\u2014whether he was posing at Stonewall<\/a> with Ian McKellen, teaching a masterclass on the quadruple take<\/a>, advocating for pit bulls<\/a> and the importance of arts funding<\/a>, reciting soliloquies on Sesame Street<\/a>, performing daily sonnets during the pandemic<\/a>, dressing up as a lobster<\/a> for Halloween, getting choked up while reminiscing about filming<\/a> The Next Generation finale, or bringing his personal passion for stopping domestic violence to convention appearances throughout the years.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It was that blend of levity, joy, and deep consideration that made Stewart a unique cultural figure. Both onscreen and off it became his life\u2019s work to get us to think about the world and how we can use whatever power and influence we have to make it better. And while it\u2019s a little too neat to draw a direct line between broadly liberal art like The Next Generation and what happened in this year\u2019s midterms, you can draw a line between Stacey Abrams citing Picard<\/a> as an influence on her own worldview and how her trailblazing political campaigns paved the way<\/a> for this current blue wave.<\/p>\n

In that way and in so many others, Stewart did tangible good in the world, all with a keen eye on how much more there was to be done. \u201cIf you lose hope, you give up everything,\u201d Stewart explained in 2013<\/a>. \u201cAnd in my lifetime I have seen changes in the world that 50 years ago I believed I would never live to see. A relative peace in Northern Ireland, I mean, closest to the home where I was brought up. The Berlin Wall\u2014the end of the Soviet Empire. Apartheid\u2014formally, at least\u2014ending in South Africa. These are huge transformations in the world, brought about by people having faith that things could be changed.\u201d As much as any fictional universe that\u2019s ever existed, Star Trek is about imagining a better, more equitable future, and there\u2019s arguably no one who embodied that message better than Picard and the actor who played him. It\u2019s hard to think of a more meaningful legacy than that.<\/p>\n