Stewart: The Role Of Twitter
1 min readFor Sir Patrick Stewart, Twitter helped to reshape fans’ perceptions of the actor’s personality.
People tended to think of the actor as a serious type, in part due to his Captain Picard and various Shakespeare roles.
“Somehow I’ve got stuck with these characters I play, and so an impression of who Patrick Stewart was was becoming fixed in my audience,” Stewart explained. He used his “own sense of fun on Twitter” to change that impression.
But Stewart was wary of Twitter at first. “Tiptoeing was important to me,” he said, “but what appealed about Twitter when I looked at the options was the element of connections.
“I did some research, looked at the things I found relevant and entertaining and I was very, very cautious.”
Being seen as something other than a serious person led to a role in a new comedy series by Family Guy‘s Seth MacFarlane. Stewart is “very excited about” the new role.
In addition, Stewart uses Twitter to drum up support for causes dear to his heart, such as Amnesty International, and Shelter. “[Twitter] led me to understand the potential for social interaction and social change.”