That meant watching Patrick Stewart do what he does best, and potentially realizing that the veteran is so in-tune with Picard to the point that it may have felt that he stopped playing the role and simply became the Starfleet legend.
Frakes added that Deanna Troi actress Marina Sirtis had just come back from an acting stint of her own, so he was really the odd man out.
Frakes may have been in his own head about appearing as Ryker again for a while, as he noted he had just directed two episodes of Star Trek: Picard prior to his own performance.