I don’t know if “proud” is the right word, but everything I’ve heard from Stewart in interviews over the years makes it sound like he is VERY aware of how many jobs he never would have gotten if it weren’t for Picard.
I’m not sure if this is the same thing, but I read an interview with Cary Grant once in which he said that early on, he had thought about how a well-mannered, upper-class Brit would appear and modeled himself accordingly on that. So the Cary Grant persona of each of his characters was what he was like in real life.
What, all these posts, and no mention of Heinlein’s Hugo-winning novel Double Star, about an actor who does just that?
Presents to the public but not in real life. In real life he is still Dan Whitney. Lives in Nebraska. Has a Mid-West accent. Is Dan to his friends. In the Friars Club roast they had some backstage footage and his Blue Collar Comedy buddies were all calling him Dan. He has not become the character, its just an ongoing role.
I will third or fouth. I met him after a show and someone said, “You really talk?” He looked at her like she was a small child and said, “Of course I talk.”