Bill Shatner speaks

August 14, 2012 8:54 AM

Jeff Greenwald, author of Future Perfect: How Star Trek Conquered Planet Earth, conducted an interview with William Shatner. Comes in both coherent and full Shatner mode versions.
posted by Chrysostom (12 comments total)

the Nepalese runs

This.
posted by tilde at 9:09 AM on August 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Hallucinogenic drugs? I think some people [Shatner, Bill Murray] are just that on their own, when they free them selves to be.
posted by tilde at 9:15 AM on August 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

I will now be using "full Shatner" to describe my mood when I am in "full Shatner". Cool and entertaining post.
posted by Isadorady at 9:19 AM on August 14, 2012

Thanks for this. The contrast between the two interviews is great.

Loved this:

The lesson is this: You never know what you can accomplish until you try. The problem is—what people don't talk about—is that a fair number of times, you fail. You try to climb K2, and you die. I faced that fear and was successful. There is a great deal to be gained by trying something that you’re horribly afraid of—because even if you do fail, you've learned something. Even if it’s that you don’t want to fail again!

It's easy to say “no.” Saying “yes” embodies risk. Yes to new ideas, yes to new opportunities, yes to doing a one-man show in whatever town I’m in. That's what my whole show is about: saying yes.

posted by zarq at 9:41 AM on August 14, 2012

Q: In your roles there's often a commanding tone; you’re cast as the man in charge. Is that who you really are?

It never used to be. But what has happened is, though I still realize I don't know what I’m doing, I've come to the conclusion that nobody else does, either—[nobody] knows what they're doing or knows what I’m doing. So in that mass confusion, there has to be a voice saying, "Well, here's where I am.”

I like this. And, it reminds me a bit of the Corbomite Maneuver.
posted by borborygmi at 9:41 AM on August 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

One day I realized that William Shatner and Leonard Cohen were both Jewish Montrealers, born within just a few years of each other, who went to McGill. The world became a little stranger that day.
posted by mobunited at 10:45 AM on August 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

And they're both talk-singers. Oh my God.
posted by mobunited at 10:47 AM on August 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

If you go full Shatner, you are more likely to Skycrane the problem.
posted by BeeDo at 11:26 AM on August 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

The man is a treasure.
posted by stenseng at 3:05 PM on August 14, 2012

I don't think I knew that Shatner was from a Jewish background until I saw The Captains.
Nimoy had never kept it a secret, what with his gang signs and stuff (and he's looked and sounded incredibly "jewish" as he's aged, but that might be William Bell speaking), but I wonder if Shatner hid it for some reason? Or was I dazzled by Kirk's Iowa charm?

Either way, I like how both men are just doing whatever the hell they want to do, because they're old, man.
(Actually, Takei too... )
posted by Mezentian at 4:34 PM on August 14, 2012

Now somebody has got to start a band called Joe's Frog Five...
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:33 PM on August 14, 2012

This is a great example of the process of writing and how one makes someone sound a lot more coherent through the magic of editing.

But hell yeah, "full Shatner" is entertaining to read.

Man, I want a one woman show. Nepalese runs or not, that still sounds fun to me. But I'm a sicko.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:38 PM on August 14, 2012