The Many Iterations of William Shatner 152
pickens writes "The NY Times weekend magazine has a long profile, well worth reading, of self-described 'working actor' William Shatner. He began acting at age 6 and at one point in the late 1950s was mentioned in the same breath as his contemporaries Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, and Robert Redford — until, without explanation, his career faded before it bloomed. Shatner, now 79, pulls no punches in his memories of the Star Trek years. 'I never thought it'd become a big deal, just 13 episodes and out,' says Shatner. 'I didn't think I was hard to get along with. There were a few disaffected actors who came in once a week. I had nothing to do with them. Friendly! I was working seven days a week, learning 10 pages of dialogue a day. They had one line!' Which was the beginning of the William Shatner character. 'They said I was this William Shatner character, and I figured I had to be it. Pompous, takes himself seriously, hardheaded.' Shatner said that that character evolved slowly, until one day he realized he couldn’t change it. 'So I played it. But I didn’t see it. That character doesn’t seem like me to me. I know the real William Shatner.'"
Re:Delusions of Grandeur (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, you're pulling that quote entirely out of context. If you read the entire interview below from where that quote originates, you'll find the comment is in jest and the whole interview is flippant and comedic in tone; Shatner never gives serious answers. As a post further up notes, "big targets are easy to hit" and though I don't wish to be an apologist, I think you may have mistook his unusual and occasionally brilliant approach to self deprecation via aggrandizement as someone who is actually delusional:
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/community/chat/archive/transcript/1086.html [startrek.com]
Re:Delusions of Grandeur (Score:4, Informative)
Captain, they've taken it down! Wayback machine to the rescue, sir!
http://web.archive.org/web/20071015141903/http://startrek.com/startrek/view/community/chat/archive/transcript/1086.html [archive.org]
Weigh the evidence (Score:4, Informative)
I bought William Shatner's books on his time in Star Trek. I also bought Nichelle Nichols's book, George Takei's book, Walter Koenig's book, and James Doohan's book. (I might even have one or two others I forget now.) In Shatner's book he claims to be bewildered why his former castmates seem to hold him in low regard, and claims that while filming Star Trek he never knew they didn't like him. In all the castmate books, they make clear that Shatner was not popular among the castmates, ever. I haven't read these books in over a decade; but I think their biggest complaint was that Shatner felt his character was far more important than theirs (well, fair enough) and that therefore he felt justified in treating them poorly, which made them consider Shatner a big jerk (well, seems fair enough also).
I read an essay by Harlan Ellison about his experience with Star Trek, when he wrote the episode "The City on the Edge of Forever". (Summary: according to him, he wrote a totally brilliant and award-winning script, which Gene Roddenberry and company then messed up a whole lot, yet even this messed-up version was a fan favorite, and he is bitter about the whole thing even decades later.) The part that really made me wake up, though, was when he described a visit from Shatner.
According to Ellison, Shatner came over to Ellison's home and started going through the script. He counted how many lines of dialog Kirk had compared to the other cast members, and started lobbying Ellison to increase the Kirk dialog (and thus inevitably cut back other dialog).
I guess Ellison could be lying. But I also remember watching the Shatner-directed Star Trek V and I remember how much that movie revolved around Kirk. Of all the characters, only Kirk was smart enough to ask the incredibly insightful question: What does God need with a starship, given that He is omnipotent and all? The Nimoy-directed Trek movies did not focus overmuch on Spock.
Actions are a more dependable guide to character than statements, even earnest ones, from the person in question. There is also the evidence from people around him. I don't think I'd be in a big hurry to be friends with Shatner.
Yet, it seems that Nimoy really is friends with Shatner and has been for decades, so Shatner must have some redeeming qualities that Nimoy sees.
P.S. The most interesting thing from the Nichelle Nichols book was her description of the first black/white interracial kiss on broadcast television. She says that everyone was antsy about the scene, so they decided to film two versions: the real kiss, and an almost-sort-of kiss that might be less offensive to people bent out of shape over race issues. Shatner suggested they film the real kiss first, and they did so. Then, in each take of the fake kiss, Shatner made some obvious gaffe that ruined the scene. He didn't admit he was doing it on purpose, but he ruined every attempt to shoot the fake kiss. Perforce they ran the real kiss as part of the episode and made TV history. Shatner apparently forgot all about this, or at least remembered it differently, and Nichols expressed puzzlement that Shatner could forget such an unusual series of events in which he played such a large role.
steveha