It’s not Shakespeare, but veteran stage actor Patrick Stewart has landed a new role as the “poster boy” for Twitter.
The 73-year-old actor, best known for his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” caused a bit of a kerfluffle when he showed up Thursday morning to help ring the New York Stock Exchange opening bell ahead of Twitter’s much-anticipated IPO.
The exchange had been keeping mum about who would ring the bell to kick off trading, but Twitter’s semi-famous founders were expected to do the honors.
Instead, Stewart was beamed up to the stage along with Vivienne Harr, a San Francisco Bay-area fourth-grader who used a lemonade stand to raise awareness for child slavery, and Cheryl Fiandaca, the ex-wife of former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton and a former WCBS-TV correspondent, now a representative of the Boston Police Department.
In a tweet, the NYSE Euronext explained that Twitter choose these three folks because it “owes success to its users,” and they have been effective users of the messaging site.
Later, during an interview with CNBC, Stewart explained that he has become something of a “poster boy” for Twitter after just 18 months of using the service, which he initially viewed as “somewhat silly.”
“It has now become one of the most significant aspects of my life, but most importantly of my career,” said Stewart, who is performing on Broadway with Ian McKellen in Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.”
“It has changed the public perception of who Patrick Stewart is from being a rather serious, upright, noble, honest and decent person to something of a clown,” Stewart added.
Indeed, Stewart, who has 725,776 followers, recently posted a picture of himself in a giant lobster suit sitting in a bathtub.