How 'Green Room' Shows Us a Side of Patrick Stewart We've Never Seen Before

How 'Green Room' Shows Us a Side of Patrick Stewart We've Never Seen Before

In a recent interview on Marc Maron's WTF podcast, Sir Patrick Stewart got brutally honest. He doesn't sound bitter about his career-defining role on Star Trek: The Next Generation, but he does share an anecdote about seeking out a role in a small film and being turned down because they didn't want "Jean-Luc Picard" in their film.
For an actor as talented and respected as Stewart, who cut his teeth in the Royal Shakespeare Company before he began captaining the USS Enterprise, that's got to hurt. Here's a powerful actor, a man whose work on the stage has earned him countless accolades, unable to land a role despite his worldwide fame. Even his other big role, Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men movies, leans heavily on his popular TV image -- that of a noble, fatherly leader.
So that's why his work in Green Room is so satisfying and surprising. Here is a side of Stewart the vast majority of filmgoers have never seen. Here is a movie that knows how to take his celebrity and contort it just enough to heighten rather than distract. Here is a movie that actually allows one of the most famous geek icons of the past thirty years to blend into the ensemble of a pitch black thriller.

Director Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin) is one of the smartest and most exciting directors working at the moment. So of course he knows that casting someone as beloved as Stewart as the vicious leader of a white supremacist clan conjures up an instant reaction in audiences. He even gives his chief villain one hell of an introduction. Shot from behind, Stewart's Darcy gets out of his car and walks while the camera follows. We hear him first -- his voice remains as confident and powerful as ever -- but then he removes his hat. Suddenly, that bald head, the same shiny dome that represented so much comfort and dignity in other roles, is presented in a brand new context. His familiar, striking look remains commanding, but now for all of the wrong reasons. In a movie full of racist skinheads, only he has mastered the look. And it's so deeply uncomfortable.
Green Room also knows not to overuse Stewart. He remains on the periphery of the plot, commanding his soldiers from the sidelines as they lay siege to the titular room, where a young punk band who witnessed a violent murder are hiding out. There are no big moments or commanding speeches. He's a professional. Calm, cool, and collected. He speaks with reassuring confidence, even when he's planning a murder. His fierce intelligence is evident in each and every decision. Another screenplay would have given its big star a big monologue, a chance to yell and scream and Act with a capital "A." With the role of Darcy, Saulnier has given Stewart what he was pining for on that episode of WTF: the chance to try something new, to blend in, to be someone new and unrecognizable.
Most of Stewart's fans will never get to see him play MacBeth or King Claudius live on stage. Like all live theater, most of Stewart's most exciting and dynamic performances have vanished into thin air, only living on in the memories of those who witnessed them. Green Room is an instant classic, a tense and bloody thriller that has to be seen to be believed. It's an incredible film composed of countless elements that gel into one unforgettable final product. One of those elements is Sir Patrick Stewart. Here is a movie that reminds us that he's a one-of-a-kind actor who is so much bigger than his most famous character...and that we should all be collectively ashamed that the movies have rarely utilized him so well.
Green Room, which just played at Fantastic Fest, won't hit theaters until 2016. But to whet your appetite even more, here's a small, NSFW clip from the movie.