What other actors were considered to play Picard?
- Thread starter MarsWeeps
- Start date
Wasn't Gerard Depardieu also considered?
I think they wanted someone like him. But imagine if they'd got him - what that show would've looked like.
V.
It would have bombed after 1 season, if it made it that long.
A Casting Memo dated April 13, 1987 lists the following actors:
Patrick Stewart
Mitch Ryan
Roy Thinnes
Yaphet Kotto
Patrick Bachau
Source:
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/08/star-trekcasting.htm
Patrick Stewart
Mitch Ryan
Roy Thinnes
Yaphet Kotto
Patrick Bachau
Source:
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/08/star-trekcasting.htm
Roy Thinnes would have been a disaster. Up to that point I'd seen Patrick Stewart in I, Claudius and Dune. Not sure if Lady Jane was out by 1987, but he played her father in that movie. So I was used to seeing him in a variety of roles and didn't have a problem with him being Captain Picard.
Actually, it worked out nicely when I was trying to interest some friends in I, Claudius:
Me: You wanna see Captain Picard in a Roman mini-skirt?
Them: YEAH!!!
Actually, it worked out nicely when I was trying to interest some friends in I, Claudius:
Me: You wanna see Captain Picard in a Roman mini-skirt?
Them: YEAH!!!
antiquityscion
Commander
The only one other than Patrick Stewart that I think could have pulled off Picard was Patrick Bauchau. He was great as Lodz, in Carnivale.
I don't see Yaphett Kotto as Picard, but he would have made Geordi a hell of a lot cooler!
I heard that Cotto was also a top contender for Lando Calrissian before they went ahead with Billy Dee.
Ironically, Patrick Bachau, seemed exactly like what they designed the character to be, & far more believable as a Frenchman, being that he's Belgian, & worked out of France. He'd already done a fair amount of American TV, & was almost exactly the same archetype as Stewart, middle aged, a conservative yet Renaissance type man
I'm amazed he never got the part, really
Do not mistake me to mean I think he should have. Stewart is the main reason I love the show
I'm amazed he never got the part, really
Do not mistake me to mean I think he should have. Stewart is the main reason I love the show
Interesting list. To me, it's no contest that Picard deserved the role. I agree, Roy Thinnes would've been a disaster, and I'm surprised he was even on the list. I liked him in his earlier work, but he just couldn't take his talent to the next level... which was evident in so little visible work that followed.
Roy Thinnes ended up on my soap, One Life To Live. He played a man who broke up a happy marriage between two of the longest-running characters, and when his new wife voiced concern for how her kids would take it, he dismissed that with, "They'll get used to it." Oh, and the character was a homophobe who never accepted that his older son was gay and died of AIDS - only started to accept that reality when his younger son, a minister, was nearly killed by a homophobic mob at the church. The character was reviled by a lot of fans, and TPTB eventually killed him off (thank goodness!).
I realize that the actor wasn't to blame for the storyline he was given to play out, but any decent actor can make the audience feel some shred of sympathy for him. Roy Thinnes couldn't.
I realize that the actor wasn't to blame for the storyline he was given to play out, but any decent actor can make the audience feel some shred of sympathy for him. Roy Thinnes couldn't.
I see what you did there...
Yeah... guilty as charged. 
Completely unrelated subnote here, but your avatar made me remember the ending to Preemptive Strike, when Riker is giving his report to Picard and he's just staring straight ahead.
On topic, I always found the idea of JLP being French to be a bit far fetched. He didn't have a French accent and wasn't one to back down from a fight if it was necessary
On topic, I always found the idea of JLP being French to be a bit far fetched. He didn't have a French accent and wasn't one to back down from a fight if it was necessary
I don't know about that. The very first episode, "Encounter at Farpoint" what did Picard do? Surrendered in true French Fashion!
On topic, I always found the idea of JLP being French to be a bit far fetched. He didn't have a French accent and wasn't one to back down from a fight if it was necessary
I don't know about that. The very first episode, "Encounter at Farpoint" what did Picard do? Surrendered in true French Fashion!
Haha, true actually.
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