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Many years ago, people wondered why Patrick Stewart, a renowned Shakespearian stage actor in his late 40s, was being hired to play the French-born captain of the Enterprise in Star Trek’s first spin-off, The Next Generation (1987). It seemed an odd choice on paper. Stewart signed on expecting the show to fail and hoped to use it as a platform to achieve more on-camera experience before returning to the stage.

As it turned out, he was hired because his theatrical background worked beautifully for the heavily-dialogued, emotional and culturally-conscious Star Trek vehicle, and he went on to create an iconic character in television history.

While Stewart has gained most of his American recognition from Hollywood franchises like Star Trek and his role as Professor Xavier in the X-Men universe, he’s continued a strong career on the stage. His love of Shakespeare continues, recently having played the titular role in Macbeth at the Lyceum Theatre in 2008 (for which he received a Tony nomination), and he regularly takes on a variety of other modern roles. This background in stage performance is perfect for a film like Match (2014), Stephen Belber’s stage-to-film adaptation that relies heavily on strong, commanding performances both as demanded by its production schedule, and so as to keep the narrative momentum of the film going. Almost every review of Match, despite any individual critic’s overall consensus of the film, agrees that Stewart enlivened the character and gave a rewarding, memorable performance.

“The experienced theater vet has been given material that allows him to preen, pontificate and laugh with glee. Stewart is a treasure, and it’s unfortunate he hasn’t been seen onscreen much lately: his every gesture and word is relished, like a hungry man biting into a bon-bon…The actor slips away and Tobi ultimately dominates the screen to the point where you lose track of the film proper and become Tobi’s guest. It’s rare to see this level of comfort between an actor and a character, and he’s just as watchable shrinking from pain as he is telling a joke or yelling profanities.” - Indiewire

Co-star Matthew Lillard believed Stewart should have been given an Oscar for the job.

When Oregon Live asked Stewart how his stage background bolstered his performance in Match, he spoke candidly about his connection to the character, which in many ways mirrored aspects of his own life and career.

“As a young actor, I ate, slept, lived, breathed stage acting, at the cost of lots of friendships and relationships. I would see my family for one day a week. It was hard at the time, but for me there was never any question that I would change the work I was doing in order to spend more time with my children. I think we all suffered somewhat from that, and my children are grown up now, and I have grandchildren with whom I spend as much time as possible. But you see, you can’t call them sacrifices, because they’re deliberate choices: I want my life to be like this, and that other side of it will have to go. Tobi has done exactly the same thing. And the fact is, you can’t create a career without making those choices. It is only those who can dedicate themselves to what they’re doing, in my business, anyway, who stand a chance of getting somewhere. It’s tough. So I think a lot of people will probably recognize that aspect of Match.”

This intimacy with the character is abundantly clear when viewing the film. It’s obviously a fictional character, but one quite evidently shaded by an authenticity that can only come from Stewart’s real-life experience.

“Writer/director Stephen Belber created the kind of characters actors dream of. We’re so used to seeing Patrick Stewart as superheroes and space captains; even when he does theater, he plays big characters— Shakespearean kings and ghosts, or Beckettian clowns. To see him play a regular man, with depths and neuroses present but realistically contained, is a joy.” - Pajiba

At this point in his career, it’s wonderful to see this type of work from Stewart. He could easily sit on his wealth, take easy jobs in franchises in which he’s been established, and live peacefully. Instead, he’s arguably becoming more of a presence than ever during his 70s, taking on more work in film and television that are outside the realm of what audiences are used to seeing, but all of which draw on his expert training on the stage. He’s a concise, eloquent performer, and Match proves he’s able to infuse that practiced artistry into anything he does.