by Paul Fischer

Currently appearing on the London stage in Ibsen's The Master Builder, Patrick Stewart flew into New York for a one day media blitz. We've spoken with other actors who have stepped into comic book character roles but none have shown the knowledge of the fanboy ethic as Stewart. When we presented him with our copy of X-Men vol. 1 #1 -- just to have a look, you understand. We weren't about to give the thing away -- Stewart looked it up and down and said "You know, you should really have this slabbed." Slabbing, for those of you outside the hobby, means the book has been professionally graded, to help establish a monetary value, and sealed in a hard plastic sleeve to prevent further damage or deterioration.

More important, we've sat through enough stinkers and interviewed actors who know that they're promoting stinkers -- it is not a pleasant experience on either side of the table -- that it is an incredible pleasure to roll tape on a film that left everyone happy as [insert your favorite metaphor here]. For Patrick Stewart, who told us that the first film felt, to him, "like a very expensive trailer," X2 puts to rest any baggage that may have dragged along with his other iconic role, as Star Trek Captain Jean Luc Picard.

Patrick Stewart: I knew nothing about the X-Men. Lauren Shuler Donner called me into her office one day while I was doing ADR for Conspiracy Theory, [produced by her husband, Richard]. She asked me what I knew about X-Men. I said, "You mean X-Files?" "No, X-Men," she said, and she pulled out an issue, and there was "me" on the cover. I was intrigued. I didn't think the studio would make the commitment to me because we were still shooting the Star Trek movies. I actually resisted a bit because of all the Star Trek baggage, and Bryan [Singer] insisted the baggage was important. Once we got underway, they delivered comic books to my house.

CrankyCritic: When we talked before the first movie came out, you said your children warned you that X-Men could be bigger than Star Trek. Now that you've got three years of it under your belt, how does it stack up?
Patrick Stewart: That was my son, who was nine at the time, that said that. It strikes me that X-Men has a different fanbase than Star Trek. It's huge, but it's probably a more refined and narrower fanbase. The backstories are much more significant in X-Men than in Star Trek. On Trek, we were making stuff up as we went along. Maybe another difference is the gender and age are different. Star Trek really covers both genders, all ages, and it's everywhere, whereas comic books seem to be mostly men. Don't you think that is so?
CrankyCritic: If I could find a female fanboy, I'd marry here
Patrick Stewart: (laughs) And women like the movies because of Hugh Jackman and James Marsden.

CrankyCritic: We were introduced to Professor X as a telepath in X-Men, yet in X2 there is a physical demonstration of his power. He appears to be able to "freeze time"
Patrick Stewart: Yes, we did get some glimpses of it. There is so much more to him, though. I wasn't sure that the audience would get what Xavier had done. We even added a line from me off-camera to make it clear. It is nice to see that this guy, who is considered a super mutant, do a super feat. I did spend a lot of the first movie, as I do the second, helpless in the clutches of others. That was a little disappointing. I'm looking forward to flying around in the floating wheelchair.