When 72-year-old actor Patrick Stewart told everyone on Twitter Wednesday that he just ate his first slice of pizza, the Internet literally exploded. How could it be possible that one of the most popular British actors working today have gone so long in his life without eating pizza? In an interview on Thursday, the former Star Trek: The Next Generation actor explained exactly what he meant.
As we previously reported, Stewart tweeted, “My first ever pizza "slice". Please note: the authentic NY fold.” While he tried to explain in a following tweet that he “never had a ‘slice,’” people assumed that he had never had pizza in any form before. It turns out that he has had pizza, just not in the traditional ‘slice’ form that Americans love.
“People misunderstood. There was a school of thought that I had eaten my first pizza, but of course how could that possibly be true?” he told New York Magazine. “I would have had to have stayed locked up in a cellar.”
He continued, “But nevertheless, this was my first slice of pizza, which I was only eating because my fiancée and I were a little hung-over yesterday morning and she said what we need is pizza and a soothing drink — and she was right. It solved the problem. But, in fact, it was my first slice, and when it was brought over to me, my first comment was ‘There's no knife and fork.’ Of course, I was mocked for thinking that I could eat a pizza slice with a knife and fork.”
Stewart later said that he is “astonished” by the attention his silly tweet has received.
“You know, we thought it was a cute picture,” he said. “I like doing these things that are kind of unexpected, as far as I'm concerned, and things that have a little bit of a surprise element to them. But we never anticipated what has happened. I just did an interview with BBC, the main evening news program. And it's been years since I've talked to them. And it's all, you know, about a pizza slice.”
Stewart wouldn’t tell the site where he was going, but he said that he might have another slice soon.
He did say that it has taken him a long time to see pizza, since where he grew up in England, it wasn’t exactly popular. He admitted that when he first heard Dean Martin sing, “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie,” he and his brother didn’t even know what pizza looked like.
At least this is the kind of tweets that gets Stewart attention for and his reaction to it is perfect. He gets to keep his awesome club card.
image: Twitter