MIRFIELD star Patrick Stewart has been nominated for an international award.

The Hollywood actor has been listed for a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) accolade.

The nomination is for his lead role in the TV film version of Macbeth, screened in the United States.

And it pits Sir Patrick – the Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield – against acting greats John Goodman, Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid and Edgar Ramirez.

The awards themselves are in Los Angeles at the end of January.

Sir Patrick said: “I wasn’t aware they were being announced. That’s always the best way of hearing, rather than sitting by the phone or the television and not hearing anything.

“I planned to celebrate. I had my girlfriend with me, and we both had a busy day, but we planned to meet up for lunch and I think we shall probably find an excuse to raise a glass of something sparkling.

“Filming for Macbeth took 18 days. That is camera time. Given that this film is two hours, 25 minutes long, it’s very fast work.

“But we had played this on the stage for exactly a year. It’s a very challenging play, and we had all felt from quite early on that this was a production that could be transposed on to a film quite excitingly.

“It’s not a film of a stage production, which we have seen, and some of them have been fine. This is a movie filmed on location, and with all of those challenges.

“None of it was in the studio, but we could work quickly because all the actors after 18 months were familiar with their characters.

“My approach changed from stage to film. I had 18 months to think about it and I found that I better knew this character and all the different directions he was going in.

“I think that all of us – with the benefit of some different and very dramatic locations – were all able to push the boundaries of the production and the characterisations somewhat further.

“There are many things in the film version that never happened on stage.

“The SAG awards are very special, and you will have heard this countless times by other nominees and that’s because it’s given by our peers and that means everything to all actors. Going to the awards is like a big reunion party.”

He said he was looking forward to meeting up with the other nominees.

“Particularly Mr Pacino because I saw his performance on Broadway a few days ago in The Merchant of Venice, and he is an actor who has put Shakespeare on film before, so maybe we can exchange notes.”

It has also been announced that Sir Patrick will return to the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) to play moneylender Shylock in The Merchant of Venice next spring.

The production, under RSC regular Rupert Goold, will begin performances on May 13, 2011.

The production will be the second time Sir Patrick demands his “pound of flesh” with the RSC – he first tackled the role for the company in 1978.

He found commercial success for his roles as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Prof Charles Xavier in the X-Men films.