Yahoo News Patrick Stewart was asked to audition for “Star Trek” with a wig, so he had one flown in from London
Patrick Stewart's beaming bald head has been a beacon on the final frontier going on five decades now, but Paramount executives almost had him cover up that comely cueball.
In his forthcoming memoir Making It So, Stewart recalls getting the audition for the role of "Captain" for Star Trek: The Next Generation — against the advice of bestie Ian McKellen. He was on his way from the UK to Los Angeles for the audition when his ex-wife Sheila Falconer received a call from his agent.
Paramount Pictures/Everett Patrick Stewart
"Right as I was boarding my plane at Heathrow, my London agent called Sheila at home and notified her that the Paramount people had been in touch, asking if I owned a hairpiece, and if I did, could I bring it to the audition?" Stewart writes.
"Sheila diligently retrieved my 'audition wig' from its space in my wardrobe and boxed it up, whereupon a British Airways representative collected it and placed it on a later flight to Los Angeles," he continues.
The revered thespian isn't sure if his "hairpiece flew first class" but it had arrived by the following day from London and and so he "drove back to LAX to retrieve it." The bewigged Stewart was then only asked to perform one scene before he was dismissed, so when the execs dropped his dressing room afterwards, he thought, "Shit, here comes the bad news."
"But all they did was thank me once more, wish me a good day, and take off," Stewart writes, noting that by this point his hairstylist Joy had snatched his wig.
"When the door closed, Joy began jumping up and down gleefully," he continues. "'You know why they did that?' she said. 'They wanted to see what you looked like without the hairpiece. And I think they liked what they saw!'"
They sure did.
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