Actor Patrick Stewart was terrified he'd get arrested after leaving a performance of William Shakespeare's Macbeth with fake blood all over his hands.

The Star Trek star had just finished starring as the tragic king on London's West End stage when he left the theatre without cleaning himself up properly.

And just moments later Stewart regretted his decision not to wash up when he spotted two policeman examining the hands of two men. He says, "It's a very bloody show, I mean truly bloody. My hands are covered in blood, not once, but twice in the play, and you've got to be careful about this stuff."

"One night in London, when we were at the Gielgud Theatre, I'd left the theatre very quickly and I hadn't cleaned too carefully. Out on the street, walking through Soho, I saw the police - they'd got a couple of young guys, and they had them against the wall and they were looking at their hands. I don't know why."

"And I thought, If they stop me, and they look at my hands... I have blood under my fingernails. And it gets everywhere. We (actors) all have this special relationship with blood in this play. It's very, very gory."

Stewart will star in Macbeth at New York's Lyceum Theater from 8 April (08), six months after playing the title role in London. (GES/WNVRK/KL)

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