Last night (Thursday October 29), it was announced that the great Patrick Stewart had passed away aged 86 following what was described by his family as a "brief" battle with with Alzheimer's and Lewy Body Dementia. The beloved actor was a titan of film, TV and theatre, known to millions around the world for his iconic roles as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Professor Charles Xavier in Fox's X-Men film franchise.
Those two roles saw Stewart play empathetic, heroic and selfless leaders - which was what made his casting as a cold, calculating Neo-Nazi all the more surprising when it was announced he'd be playing the lead villain in 2015 horror-thriller, Green Room.
Released by A24, the studio behind smash hits including Backrooms, Uncut Gems, Moonlight and Hereditary, the Jeremy Saulnier-directed flick features Stewart as Darcy, the boss of a racist right wing gang terrorising a hapless punk band who got booked for a gig in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific Northwest. Turns out the gig is full of violent Nazis, and things quickly go south.
The script scared the **** out of me!
Patrick Stewart
"Darcy Becker is a bad guy," Stewart remarked in promo for the film. "He's a really bad guy. And I have to be honest and say that I think it was that aspect that seduced me.
"I was sitting in my house in West Oxfordshire, and I settled down on a Saturday evening to read this script. I found it to be a page-turner! And it scared the shit out of me. I was alone, in my house; at some point in the story I poured a large scotch, because it was so unsettling, that sense of being in a situation, surrounded by people you can't reason with. If it does this to me, when it's on screen, it might really have a lot of impact."
Working on Green Room also enabled Stewart to educate himself on a culture he'd been largely ignorant to - the punk rock scene. "I had nothing in common with these musicians," he told The Daily Beast, speaking of the fictional band in the movie, The Ain't Rights. "I don’t especially care for their music!"
Stewart - a lifelong socialist - did however find himself fascinated by the rebellious nature of punk, noting that he "believed in this world" and was "quite drawn that element of protest, of violent musical objection."
Director Jeremy Saulnier, on the other hand, was already all too familiar with the world of punk rock - and some of its dark subcultures. Growing up just outside of Washington D.C., Saulnier played in a local hardcore band and would encounter Neo Nazi punks at shows.
“When we started going to shows across the bridge in Washington, D.C., as a 15-, 16-year-old kid, just seeing Nazis in the light of day at matinee shows was unnerving,” he admitted. “This was back when D.C. was the murder capital of the United States, per capita. It was a grimy, grungy, scary place, and I felt very unsure and out of my depth. That stayed with me.”
I had nothing in common with these musicians
Patrick Stewart
Green Room received rave reviews upon release, critics hailing it as a taut, tense and affectingly violent piece of work. Singled out for particular praise was Patrick Stewart for his unnerving turn as Darcy - an instant classic villain and proof of the great man's refusal to ever submit to typecasting.
Countless fans will rightly remember Stewart as their Captain, their Professor X. But many horror aficionados will also attest to the fact that he made for a pretty damn good baddie, too.
