Jeremy Saulnier calls Patrick Stewart's Green Room villain the production's savior

“We’re fucked, and we were close to shutting down,” Saulnier narrated to the crowd according to The Hollywood Reporter, “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.”

Stewart, who earned startled and universal praise for his despicable turn in the film, was, according to Saulnier, ” a fucking sweetheart, true gentleman, [who was a] very kind leader to our whole cast,” while he credits the Shakespearean-trained icon for “why I still make movies.”

It’s all just another reminder of what a loss Patrick Stewart’s death has been to so many, with Saulnier concluding by fondly recalling the actor’s one bit of script input, which the director immediately adopted. “‘Well, during this one part of the scene, when the camera’s coming through there, I’d like to say, ‘fuck!’, Saulnier remembers Stewart asking, to which the director quickly told the legend, “Permission granted, sir.”