Making It So (2023) Book Discussion

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing well. I had planned on doing this post yesterday, but I got distracted with stuff, so here I am. I'm here to talk about Sir Patrick Stewart's new memoir, Making It So. It's not a review, because how do you review how someone tells their life story in a book? Instead, I'm just going to talk about the book and whether I recommend it or not. So let's get into it.

Sir Patrick Stewart, the man who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard for ten seasons of television (7 seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation and 3 seasons of Star Trek: Picard) and four movies, and Professor Charles Xavier in six X-Men movies and one MCU movie, is one of the first actors I ever saw on screen. The others being the rest of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. As a result Sir Patrick is someone I've followed the career of my whole life. As you know, I'm not much into celebrities or celebrity watching or anything like that, I don't own alot of biographies or autobiographies, and it's not something I'm generally into. But, when I saw that Sir Patrick was doing a memoir and it was being published this year, I decided that, this is one that I wanted to own. 

Despite him being well known for Star Trek and the X-Men movies, he doesn't actually spend that much time talking about his time on either franchise, preferring to spend more time talking about his life as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company in England and the various plays he performed in, as well as his personal life, such as friendships, family, and romantic relationships than on his work.

I've heard someone say that the book felt like just a bunch of name drops, with nothing exciting happening. That's what I love about it. Movies and TV shows, specifically the discussion surrounding movies and TV shows, have made being an actor or actress this glamourous thing, especially when someone is as famous as Sir Patrick is. But, alot of the time actors have lives just like ours. Sure, they may have more money than we could ever imagine, and live in bigger houses than most of us could ever afford to live in, but, their lives aren't anymore exciting than yours or mine are. It's just they tend to run into tons more celebrities than we would, because the performing arts industry is pretty small. Especially if you spend most of your time in L.A. or Stratford or wherever you spend your time working. 

One of my favourite lines comes during Sir Patrick's time on Star Trek. He's talking about how he's managed to remain humble while his star was on the rise in Hollywood thanks to him playing Picard and then he says, "Stop laughing Jonathan", meaning Jonathan Frakes, who, naturally, would be laughing at Sir Patrick for saying such a thing with a straight face. Not only is that a scene I can imagine those two having, but it reminds me of season 3 of Picard, where he forgot that he no longer needs to call down to Engineering to inform them of what warp they'll be going to on the newest starships, and after Seven of Nine reminds him of this he says, "Oh yes, of course", and Riker says, "Nice recovery Admiral." to which Jean-Luc replies, "Shut it Will.".

Also, I was intrigued to know that Sir Ian McKellen actually tried to dissuade Sir Patrick from taking the role of Picard on TNG, believing that Sir Patrick had a much better career in the Royal Shakespeare Company than he did on television. Keep in mind that Sirs Patrick and Ian were not close friends yet as that would not happen until they started working together on the X-Men movies in the late '90s and early 2000s, and because of this, Sir Patrick decided to accept the role of Picard, believing that Sir Ian was wrong. So you have Gandalf to thank for Sir Patrick deciding to accept the role on Star Trek.

If you're a fan of Sir Patrick Stewart and his work, then I highly recommend picking up this book, even if you're not heavily into biographies or autobiographies. Because he wrote it, it feels like he's saying the words on the page as if he were on the radio or standing right in front of you. Right now the book is in hardcover and there's an audiobook version as well, which is narrated by Sir Patrick himself. So definitely pick it up if you have the chance.

Alright my friends, I think that's going to be it for me for 2023. I am taking next week and the week after off for Christmas and New Year's and then I'll be back for more reviews and other posts. So until then have a great last week of the year, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, and I will see you all in 2024. Take care.