“I’ve done things in the last three weeks,” Patrick Stewart was saying, “I’ve never thought in my life I would do on-camera.”
Coming from Stewart, that statement demands attention. On “Star Trek: The Next Generation” — the sci-fi series that made him a household name — Stewart played Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, the cerebral spaceship commander who, among other unlikely events, survived a stab to the heart during battle and had his body taken over by aliens.
But those were heroic things. For his latest project, the 74-year-old Shakespearean-trained actor is exploring new frontiers of outrage. On the new Starz comedy “Blunt Talk,” Stewart plays Walter Blunt, a blustery, self-obsessed but essentially good-natured British-born host at a cable news network beset by ratings worries. The series, which also features Jacki Weaver, Adrian Scarborough and Dolly Wells, premieres Aug. 22.
Viewers may see parallels with Piers Morgan and CNN. But it’s a safe bet Morgan doesn’t go home like Blunt does and chase a butler around a dining room table with a ninja bokken, a la Peter Sellers in “The Pink Panther” movies.
“Blunt Talk” is Stewart’s first TV comedy beyond guest roles here and there. “This is a new world for me,” he said, lounging between takes in an elegant bathrobe and slippers on a soundstage in Santa Clarita, California, where the Starz show was being filmed this year.
The bathrobe was for the next scene, when Blunt would scuffle in the dining room with his servant and sparring partner Harry, played by the English actor Adrian Scarborough. His signature bald pate and regal bearing made Stewart look as fit for a revival of “The King and I” as for “Blunt Talk.”
Indeed, the actor prepared for his latest role as thoroughly as he might for the part of a Shakespearean hero.
“I became increasingly interested in his chaotic back story and life off-camera,” the actor said. For his own reference, “I wrote two pages of his history, his family, his upbringing, his education.”
But whatever outrage happens on-screen — and Stewart promises plenty — the creators are adamant on one point: “Blunt Talk” isn’t intended as a satire of the cable news business or anything else.
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