TOP OF THE WORLD
With a buzzy new movie, a hot young wife and 1.6million Twitter followers, Patrick Stewart is only getting better with age
A T74, Sir Patrick Stewart is on fire. Best known for the “Star Trek” and “X-Men” franchises, the British gentleman is still drawing fans in droves, whether it be to Broadway— where he recently performed in repertoire with pal Sir Ian McKellen— or to Twitter, wherehe posts sly quips andphotos.
But next, he delves into “Match,” in theaters Friday. The film, an adaptation of a 2004 Broadway play which earned Frank Langella a Tony nod, stars Stewart as Tobi Powell, a dance teacher with amysterious past. The Post sat down with the Park Slope resident to talk hoarding, carbs and more.
It sounds like production on this had a rough start.
We were all set to go— I mean, we were days from production— and we lost not one, but two of the actors. I couldn’t make the movie onmy own. I did suggest that I could maybe put on a wig.
In “Match,” our character, Tobi, collects his own fingernails. What’s the weirdest thing you collect?
Oh, I’m a great hoarder. I hoard little bits of food. Yesterday I discovered that my wife [singer Sunny Ozell, 36] had thrown something out of the fridge that wasn’t used up. And for a moment, Iwas really cross. It was one of those big things of apple juice. She said, “It had been in there awhile, I just thought we should throw it out.” I will squeeze the last drops of milk out of a carton, even though they might have gone [bad]. But that’s partly a so-cial thing. I grew up quite poor and you didn’t throw food out, ever.
Tobi watches his carbs. Do y ou?
I do. It comes in waves, but I’m a few weeks away from shooting this new TV series, and I’m happy withmy body, and I want to keep it where it is s now. Increasingly, research is proving exercise doesn’t just keep you alive, it keeps your brain alert. Exercise fights off so much bad s- - t.
That show is the upcoming Starz comedy “Blunt Talk,” in which you play a British news host looking to set American society straight. Seth MacFarlane is a producer— safe to assume it’s dirty ?
Is it crude? It’s bold [grins]. It is taking some risks. It’s sexually quite bold. And [my] character, Walter Blunt, is a good newsman, but eccentric.
He tells American show the should live and think, right?
Yeah, he believes he’s on a mission, and it is to put America back on the right path. The problem is he’s not American, he’s English. Andwe all know some of the trouble that Piers Morgan ran into . . .
So what advice do you have for Americans, ourself?
Where do you want to start? [Laughs.]