Executives at Paramount requested Patrick Stewart audition for his leading role in Star Trek: The Next Generation as Captain Jean-Luc Picard with a wig, forcing his then-wife Sheila Falconer to transport one from London to Los Angeles. According to Insider, Stewart shared the story in his new autobiography, Making It So, joking, “I do not know if my hairpiece flew first class.” The actor wore the wig to read one scene, making such an impression on the executives that they visited him in his dressing room. He was later told that they wanted to see what he looked like with his natural bald head, which must have done the trick as he went on to appear in 178 episodes of the show as well as multiple films without the wig. Stewart also shared that his friend Ian McKellen recommended that he turn down Hollywood roles and remain a theater actor. He wrote, “This time I had to tell him that I felt theater would return to my life whenever I was ready for it, whereas an offer of the lead role in an American TV series might never come again.”