"I Regret If People Were Offended": Patrick Stewart Explains Picard’s Season 3 F-Bomb

:0:0

Summary

Patrick Stewart defends Jean-Luc Picard's F-bomb in Star Trek: Picard season 3, stating it was appropriate for his character's emotional state and to make an impact on viewers.
Director Jonathan Frakes encouraged Stewart's ad-lib and believed the use of the curse word was understandable and suitable given the intense situation in the scene.
Swearing has been present in previous Star Trek series, so Picard's use of the F-bomb was a reminder that even a legendary space hero like him is still human.

Patrick Stewart explains Admiral Jean-Luc Picard's controversial F-bomb, which was his own ad-lib in Star Trek: Picard season 3. In Picard season 3, episode 4, "No Win Scenario," Jean-Luc recounts a story from his past to his son, Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers), where Picard and Jack's namesake, Lt. Jack R. Crusher (Doug Wert) were lost in a shuttlecraft for "ten f***ing grueling hours." While many fans applauded Picard's realistic speech, others objected to Jean-Luc's using that particular curse word, including Screen Rant, and it ignited an online debate about swearing in Star Trek.
In Star Trek: Picard season 3's home video release, there is a featurette in disc 3 called "The Making of The Last Generation" that goes in-depth behind the scenes of the final season of Picard. There, Patrick Stewart details his rationale behind Jean-Luc Picard's unexpected F-bomb. Read his quote below:

When you use language, you use it sometimes in a certain way in order to have an impact, not just on the character you’re addressing, but on the audience who are watching. And I felt that this was arguably appropriate because Picard was almost out of control. He was out of control – the fact that he used the language he did. I regret if people were offended, but it was not something we did for pure sensationalism. It was something that we did because he had lost control.