Sir Patrick Stewart is "terrified" about reliving his childhood if he ever writes his autobiography.
Sir Patrick Stewart
The 79-year-old star - who has spoken in the past about the domestic violence committed by his father when he was growing up - is thinking "seriously" about penning hs memoir but he's concerned about dredging up his old memories and the impact they could have on his wellbeing, though he thinks the support of his wife, Sunny Ozell, would help.
He told SFX magazine: "I'm thinking about [writing a book] now a lot more seriously than I did when it was first offered to me.
"What I've started doing is just writing essays.
"I rather like what Helen Mirren did in her autobiography, in that she didn't write her life story. She wrote about experiences and moments - then when you put it all together, there was Helen.
"I'm also terrified too. I'm mostly terrified about writing about my early life, which wasn't very pleasant at all and what that would do to me.
"It could make me deal with it much better, or it could become worse, I don't know.
"But I have a wonderful wife, and I know she would hold me up if it becomes a little intense."
The 'Star Trek: Picard' star found acting offered him a place of "safety" so he won't consider retirement because he's worried he'd lose that feeling of security.
He said: "People have, in recent years, asked me about retirement. It's inconceivable to me that I should retire.
"I was a stage actor for many, many years before I saw a camera.
"Being on stage, I discovered, was the safest place for me to be. I had a rather kind of perilous childhood in some respects.
"And finding that safety on stage, where I didn't have to be myself - I was being someone else, in a different environment to the one I was being brought up in - has never left me.
"My wife has even expressed concern about what should happen if I have to stop doing this job, because I think she's anxious that I should turn into a monster or something."