Though Patrick Stewart rose to prominence within the Nineteen Eighties due to films like Excalibur and Dune, and particularly with Star Trek: The Subsequent Era (the place he wasn’t well-known amongst his castmates at first), the person was already a seasoned performing veteran however that time, significantly when it got here to performs. In reality, it was via his time on the stage as a youthful man that he was capable of meet Vivien Leigh, who performed Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind and wore a gown in it that bought for $137,000 in 2015. That in flip led to him sitting proper subsequent to the actress throughout a screening of the basic film, and that individual expertise together with her ended on an emotional word.
Having talked about assembly Leigh throughout from his well-lived life life in his new e book Making It So: A Memoir (which is now accessible to buy), Stewart opened up extra about this expertise whereas showing on Conan O’Brien Wants a Pal. He was among the many individuals invited to a “new launch” of Gone with the Wind that “had been smartened up and tidied up, given new know-how.” Even higher, Stewart was fortunate sufficient to be seated to Leigh’s left throughout the screening, however the actress didn’t keep for the entire screening. As he recalled:
I used to be sitting on one facet of her, and her attractive boyfriend was sitting on the opposite facet of her sporting a wonderful, costly go well with. And I noticed that she was touching her face very often, after which lastly she turned to me and took my hand, and he or she mentioned, ‘Patrick, I’m going to have to depart. That is so upsetting. You see, so many of those beautiful individuals I labored with are useless, and it’s upsetting me a lot. So thanks for sharing this, I hope you benefit from the evening.’ And she or he received up, and he or she and John walked out. I used to be so touched. She may have simply left. She didn’t should say, ‘Thanks for coming, it’s superb of you’ and clarify to me why she was crying. She was a famous person of her day. There was no actress right this moment that’s ever been larger than Vivien was. And two Academy Awards, I feel.
In a separate interview with The New Yorker, Patrick Stewart defined that he met Vivien Leigh when he was 20 years outdated and dealing on a trio of London Previous Vic-produced performs that every one began the Gone with the Wind actress. So with Stewart being born in 1940, this locations them assembly someday in 1960 and this particular screening happening 21 12 months after Gone with the Wind initially performed in theaters. Sadly, as Leigh identified, lots of her costars had already died by then, and that was sufficient for her to need to go away earlier than the film completed, which Stewart discovered touching.
After saying these form phrases about Vivien Leigh in his interview with Conan O’Brien, in addition to calling her “fabulous-looking” and a “very, very good particular person,” Patrick Stewart then talked about that she had a “mood” and recalled an incident the place she hit certainly one of her fellow actresses with a bouquet of flowers throughout the face as a result of she mentioned one thing she didn’t like. Stewart and O’Brien then identified that Leigh, who died in 1967, suffered from bipolar dysfunction, ensuing her having “dangerous days” and “good days,” however in the end the previous thought it was a “privilege” to work together with her. Stewart capped off this portion of the dialog by sharing that Leigh attended his twenty first birthday celebration and gave him a “golden, cotton handkerchief” that was sprayed together with her trademark fragrance, and he nonetheless has it to today.
In case you’re now within the temper to observe Vivien Leigh’s efficiency in Gone with the Wind, that film may be streamed with a Max subscription, and it’s accompanied by a particular introduction. For these extra serious about Patrick Stewart’s Star Trek work, together with within the recently-concluded Picard, that may all be accessed by subscribing to Paramount+.
