The Stewarts Put on a Stoneface
There were moments when French Stewart’s mind would wander—years before the actor was known for standing rigid, like an antenna, receiving incoming messages from Big Giant Head on TV’s Third Rock From the Sun—imagining himself as Buster Keaton, the iconic silent-screen actor.
“In my 20s, someone showed me Seven Chances,” says Stewart, seated across from his wife, Vanessa Claire (Smith) Stewart, at a pizza joint around the corner from Sacred FoolsTheater. “‘Who is this guy?’ I thought. Then I saw Sherlock Junior. Keaton was just so elegant with such amazing comedic timing. The best athlete you’ve ever seen.”
But the image that stuck with him was Keaton’s blank face. “It’s that kind of stone face that lets people paint their own faces on it, sort of like a movie screen,” says the actor. Read more.
