During a 10th anniversary screening of Green Room, the film’s director, Jeremy Saulnier, came onstage to celebrate Patrick Stewart, who died at 86 on Wednesday. Salnier said Stewart “just swooped down, nosedived into our cruddy ass movie and saved us.”
In a video of Salnier’s speech posted by Film Updates on X, the director began by saying:
“Who’s sad as f**k we lost Patrick Stewart yesterday? Me. I came here to shamelessly promote Slayground [Salnier’s upcoming film], but instead, I’m just gonna celebrate Patrick Stewart. He had no business doing this movie. He had every option to do otherwise.”
Salnier then detailed that, at a crucial point in Green Room‘s production, the film was “at the point of no return, building sets, and under the gun without Darcy,” referring to the fact that during that time, they had yet to cast the crucial role of the antagonist, Darcy Banker. At this point, Stewart joined the production. As Salnier explained:
“We’re f***ed, and we were close to shutting down. And Patrick Stewart, out of the blue, sort of expressed interest in the project. And in a whirlwind, about a week later, I was on the phone with him. I left the stage [thinking,] ‘Maybe we’re gonna have to break down the sets and shut the whole movie down.’ Instead, this dude came out of nowhere, from way above our sort of zone, and just swooped down, nosedived into our cruddy ass movie and saved us, and said yes. And the movie was instantly greenlit.”
Salnier then added, “We moved forward, and I thank him for just taking that leap and making Green Room a thing. Patrick Stewart is why I still can make movies. He saved the day. Too good to be true.”
Salnier’s comments come after Patrick Stewart’s passing. He was best known for his roles as Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek franchise and as Charles Xavier in the X-Men and Marvel franchises, and he died at 86.
Stewart died in his home last Wednesday following what his longtime spokesperson Kelly Bush called “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia.” Salnier is one of several people to pay tribute to Stewart, including Ian McKellen, Kevin Feige, William Shatner, Seth MacFarlane, Hugh Jackman, Minnie Driver, Rebecca Romijn, Halle Berry, and James Marsden.
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