Sir Patrick Stewart, everyone’s favorite mutant professor and Starship Enterprise captain, appeared on The View Wednesday and dropped a major development about his personal life. While discussing a recent tweet in which Stewart joked about a potential cause of a bad night’s sleep in Washington DC, the subject of Donald Trump and his presidency thus far came up with the hosts and the actor. Apparently, Stewart discussed the current state of politics in America with multiple politically-involved friends while visiting the nation’s capital and was inspired to take action based on what he heard about Trump’s America.
That action is apparently the beginning of the actor’s process to become an American citizen. Stewart said of the choice:
“I’m not a citizen, however, there is — maybe it’s the only good result of this election — I am now applying for citizenship because I want to be an American, too. Because all of my friends in Washington said there is one thing you can do: Fight, fight. Oppose, oppose. But I can’t do it [yet] because I’m not a citizen.”
Deciding to become a US citizen is no simple choice, and as many people are learning based on the current news cycle the path to citizenship is not an easy or quick journey so it’s a huge commitment for the actor to make. The highly admired thespian, who hasn’t been one to hide his political opinions in the past, was granted an Order of the British Empire in 2010 — hence the Sir — so while it isn’t impossible for him to become a dual citizen it would be quite the development for an Officer of the OBE to also have US citizenship.
However, if there’s anybody that America would welcome with open arms and support their political activism, it’s Professor X himself.
