Ian McKellen admits to trying to talk Patrick Stewart out of Star Trek

Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart aren’t just two iconic actors — Gandalf and Jean-Luc Picard — they’re also good friends. Really good friends. How good? Good enough to kiss on the on the mouth in public, at least.

LONDON, ENGLAND – JANUARY 15: Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart kiss on the red carpet during the “Star Trek Picard” UK Premiere at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on January 15, 2020 in London, England. (Photo by Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images)

They’ve known in each other a long time, and have supported each other in their careers. But sometimes support means telling a friend when they’re making a risky move, like accepting the lead role in a sci-fi franchise reboot that probably wasn’t going to last a season.

What I’m saying is that McKellen once advised Stewart not to take on his iconic role as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. “[KcKellen] was in Los Angeles at the time and I told him I had been offered this role in this series and he seriously warned me not to take the job because it wouldn’t be good for my career,” Stewart said on This Morning, in January. “That I was doing quite well in London in the theatre and I shouldn’t abandon myself to this. He has since admitted that he might have been wrong.”

Writing about Stewart in honor of his 80th birthday in The Guardian, McKellen admits that this was true. “He’s long forgiven me my advice not to risk a solid career on the British stage by falling for an uncertain future in Star Trek,” McKellen wrote. “How he got that job is a prime example of how luck can be a lady and it will be a riveting chapter in the memoir he must write.”

As a side note, McKellen also reminds us of a mythical time with Stewart had hair. “[He has come] far from the young actor who combed his thinning hair over the crown, until one night two friends scissored it off and a noble skull was revealed.”

Stewart with hair. I’ll be damned:

Actually, lots of Stewart’s colleagues and friends weighed in on his 80th. Here’s what his fellow Star Trek alum William Shatner, himself almost 90, had the say:

"He’s a love and he is an intellectual in an athlete’s body. We had a long horse scene to do together once, and I recommended him wearing women’s silk stockings to avoid chafing and he nodded his head as a thank you. When he came out of his dressing room, he was wearing the lace stockings outside of his costume. “No, no, Patrick, underneath your costume!” We laughed, as we ordinarily did. I didn’t know he was so old."

Obviously, Stewart took the job, and I’d say it paid off for him. After all, there aren’t too many other 80-year-olds headlining a second season of their own CBS All Access show:

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h/t Independent