“Trump Won’t Last Two Months”: Patrick Stewart On Politics, Cannabis And Getting Old

Hearing Patrick Stewart’s iconic voice with your own ears has to go down as one of the greatest wonders of the world, even when he’s only using it to slag off a hapless taxi driver.

“I had the most calamitous ride from Leicester Square!” he says, standing to shake my hand in a plush Mayfair hotel room. “It took us 50 minutes. I had a wonderful morning, we were on schedule, and then we were fucked. Our driver made choices that were insane!”

At 76 years-old, Patrick Stewart has aged the way that every man intends to but few ever will: all booming gravitas, gentlemanly charm and designer wrinkles. He looks a far sight better than he does in upcoming X-Men spin-off LOGAN, that’s for sure, in which he plays a decrepit Professor Charles Xavier in the throes of mental illness.

We asked the British stage & screen legend what it’s like to grow old with a character, and witness their demise:

In Logan, we see an older, weaker, mentally fragile Charles Xavier. Did the role make you confront any of your own fears about aging?

I’m reflecting on aging anyway, it didn’t take Logan to make me think about that. I think about it everyday. Not all the time. I’m not brooding on it, but I’ve come to a point where the numbers are against you. Physical things [make me feel old]. You get to an age where you go to the doctor, you tell him how old you are and he just shrugs his shoulders and says: “Oh, is that it?”

I mean, my main problem is my hands don’t work very well. But thanks to cannabis they work much better than they used to. Thanks to the law in California now, it’s just a spray that I put on.