'Green Room' Director Jeremy Saulnier Credits Patrick Stewart With Saving the Film

By Grace Kim

Patrick Stewart died on Thursday at 86, and one day later, "Green Room" director Jeremy Saulnier told a Los Angeles audience that Stewart saved his 2015 film from shutting down entirely.

Speaking at a 10th-anniversary screening on Friday, Saulnier turned what was meant to be a promo stop into a tribute. He was there to plug his new project "Slayground," but pivoted. "I came here to shamelessly promote Slayground, but instead, I'm just gonna celebrate Patrick Stewart," he said.

How Stewart rescued 'Green Room'

The mechanism is simple: the production had no villain. Saulnier said the film was "at the point of no return" with the role of Darcy Banker, the skinhead gang leader Stewart ultimately played, still uncast. "We're fucked, and we were close to shutting down," he told the crowd.

Then the call came. "Patrick Stewart, out of the blue, sort of expressed interest in the project," Saulnier said. Within about a week, he was on the phone with the actor. He had been planning to break down the sets. Instead, the deal came together.

Saulnier's own words carry it best: "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; we moved forward."

Saulnier noted Stewart "had no business doing this movie" — a low-budget punks-versus-neo-Nazis siege thriller was an unlikely fit for an actor of his stature. "He had plenty of opportunities otherwise," the director said.

'A fucking sweetheart'

Saulnier remembered Stewart as a "fucking sweetheart, true gentleman, a kind leader to our whole cast." He also shared a small on-set story that, in his telling, proved the actor understood the film completely.

Stewart proposed adding "a little something" to one scene. "He's like, 'Well, during this one part of the scene, when the camera's coming through there, I'd like to say, "Fuck!" And I was like, 'And?' 'Just fuck.' Permission granted, sir," Saulnier recounted. The request told him everything: "He was completely aligned with the film, its aesthetic, its intentions and with me as a filmmaker."

What does this change for Stewart's legacy?

Stewart died after a brief battle with Alzheimer's and Lewy Body Dementia (a form of dementia involving abnormal protein deposits in the brain), according to a statement on his Instagram account. He was best known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and Professor Charles Xavier in the "X-Men" films.

What the "Green Room" tribute adds is the counter-narrative to the franchise icon: a star who spent his leverage on a scrappy genre film because he believed in it. Saulnier closed his introduction by thanking Stewart "for just taking that leap and making 'Green Room' a thing" — a reminder that mid-career risk-taking, from actors and directors alike, is often what keeps independent cinema alive.