Kirsty Wigglesworth, Associated Press British countrymen Patrick Stewart, left, and Ian McKellen promote their film "X-Men: The Last Stand" yesterday at the Cannes film festival. Both actors are also participating in the Royal Shakespeare Company's yearlong festival performing Shakespeare's complete works.

Stewart is best known worldwide for his roles as Xavier and Jean-Luc Picard in the series "Star Trek: The Next Generation," but he's always kept one foot in the stage door, including an acclaimed one-man production of "A Christmas Carol."

He took time out from launching the Royal Shakespeare's yearlong event, starring as Antony in "Antony and Cleopatra," with Prospero and "The Tempest" up next, to promote "X-Men." But Stewart continually steers back to theater.

"I became an actor to work in the theater, and I became an actor to work in the classical theater. That's why I gave up my job as a furniture salesman and went to drama school. I never had any plans, dreams, fantasies nothing ... maybe about doing a little television. But movies, Hollywood was so remote from my experiences, even from my desires. So as this other part of my working life -- that is, a major television series, a blockbuster studio movie -- has evolved, I've embraced it with pleasure and gratitude, partly because it has sustained one part of my life which I've always been drawn to, which is ensemble.

"From the very beginning, I wanted to be working with groups of people with whom I had a familiarity, a connection, an intimacy, a trust. Someone with whom you could establish a relationship. So I stayed with companies, especially the Royal Shakespeare Company, for nearly 15 years on that basis. Partly because I love Shakespeare and I love the challenge of that work."

On being involved in the RSC project:

"What I've been trying to do the last few years is get a bit more balance in my working life. Also, I made the decision to relocate from California to return to England. I was terribly homesick, painfully homesick. I went to London to do a play three years ago, and it was such a good experience in every possible way. I was doing a great Ibsen play ["The Master Builder"] in the West End, and I was on tour for four weeks in May, the most beautiful time of year in England, in Bath, in Morvern, in Guilford, and I knew I had to come home. Then my personal life underwent a change [divorce], and I was able to say, 'I can do this now.'

"My fantasy, it had been a fantasy for many years, that I would go back to the Royal Shakespeare Company, became a reality when about a year ago they began to talk to me about this great complete-works season, which we just launched about a month ago. ... Not just done by the RSC -- visiting companies from Japan, from Germany, from the United States, from Australia, from all over the world. So if you care to, you can see all 37 plays, all the attributed plays, all the poems, all the sonnets, performed in Stratford-on-Avon.

"It will open with 'Antony and Cleopatra,' the production I'm in now, and, interestingly, it will close with Ian McKellen's 'King Lear.' ...

"We've got a high school company who are doing one performance of one of the plays. We've got a drama school doing one. ... The Shakespeare Theater in Washington is bringing in a production. We've got a South African production of "Hamlet" on at the moment. A production is coming over from Poland, Russia, Italy. We have a puppet version of one of the plays being put on. It's so exciting."

On living out his dreams:

So I've got all my wishes. I'm living again in England. I've bought a house in the country. I'm driving 25 miles through the beautiful Warwickshire countryside to work, from my own home. I get to speak Shakespeare all day long. I'm working with clever and talented people. I'm benefiting from the blessings that have come with a television series and franchise of movies, which is having an income that has given me the ability to enjoy a lot of things in life.

Sci-fi has been very good to both Stewart and his friend McKellen, who besides "X-Men" brought Gandalf to life in the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy. "It's a nice thing to find, in my mid-60s -- Ian and I are separated only by 18 months in age ... that there is this young audience that is now seeing and enjoying the work that we do."

His RSC stint will take him right through to the end of April, including workshops and classes. He does, however, anticipate a break in November for a new film of "The Merchant of Venice," a contemporary production written by John Logan ("The Aviator," "The Last Samurai") and set in Las Vegas. Stewart will star as Shylock.

Not on his agenda, at least not yet, is a return to Xavier or Picard. With rampant rumors about a new "Star Trek" film in the works, he's asked if he will explore Picard again. First, he makes it clear he's heard the same rumors regarding J.J. Abrams' prequel that the rest of us have, but nothing about a "TNG" story line.

For his part, other than the chance to work with cast members again, he compares the role to a love affair that he's gotten over. But then again ...

"I don't know if it will be a good thing to do it again or not. ... I am very, very proud of what we did on 'The Next Generation.' And every now and then -- oh, God, it happened the other week, I was so embarrassed. I'll be sitting in a hotel room and I'm looking for something and, hello, there [is an episode of 'TNG' on television], and I've forgotten I've ordered room service and there's a knock on the door. And I let the guy in and he looks at the TV. And he goes back to the kitchen, and I bet he says, 'I've just seen the saddest thing. He's sitting there watching reruns.' ...

"It was a great part of my life, and I just don't know if that would be smart to take that space suit off the hook again."

"They get really bad press. There is an extreme element, of course, the guys who shave their heads, wear makeup and prosthetics and things, but I happen to know that equally as fanatical about 'Star Trek' are ex-secretaries of state, chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, chancellors of universities. We have a very fine audience. It's a pity, really, that Trekkies have been abused by some of the attention."

On documentaries that poke fun at Trekkies:

"You will notice it didn't include me."