William Shatner Replies 750
1) your reputation
by tps12
I happened to have seen both of your Twilight Zone episodes (the famous "something on the wing of the airplane" one and the less-famous-but-no-less-interesting one where you are obsessed with a prophecy-dispensing toy in a diner) recently. I have to say that in both episodes I was taken aback at the unexpected quality of your portrayal. Even though everyone associates your face with Captain Kirk, the characters in the TZ episodes came through loud and clear, drowning out my preconceptions.
For this reason, I'd like to ask what you think of your humorous reputation for bad acting. Would you blame some of the egregious hamminess of some of ST on the perception that TV (or SF) wasn't "real" acting or was it directing? Or some other thing?
Bill:
Of course, I don't hear the bad reviews or see them. All I know is the glowing notices that people read to me that some reviewer thinks I'm wonderful. So I've slowly come to think that I'm wonderful.
2) Favourite Parody
by hero
Star Trek has been parodied many times in many different formats; other television shows, movies, comics and so on. You yourself have probably been parodied as much or more in people's "Captain Kirk Impression" stand up skits and the like. My question is, do you recall a favourite parody for its comedy or cleverness of either yourself or the series?
Bill:
I think John Belushi probably did the best.
3) First Interracial Kiss
by Irvu
What was it like to do the first on-screen interracial kiss? How much effort did it take to make the studio go along with it, and how much of an effect did it have on you and the show as a whole?
Bill:
I think the whole interracial kiss thing has been overrated. Nichelle Nichols was a beautiful woman and her lips were full. I merely sought to make an impression.
4) Saturday Night Live
by billmaly
Years ago, when you hosted SNL, you participated in the now classic Trekkie sketch (actually, one of my all time favorite SNL sketches).
Was that sketch a catharsis for you, a means of finally casting off some chains and letting the world know what you think and feel, or was it just a sketch? I am not dissing you, your work, or Trek fans, but, let's be honest here, some people do need to, in your words, "Get a life!". Do you/did you feel that way, or was it just an act? Come on, be honest..... :)
Bill:
Ok, I'll be honest. It was a laugh. Pure & simple. You should have at least been mildly amused. It seems to me that you need to get a life.
5) MPAA
by jhines0042
Concerning the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Do you consider them to be a boon or a bane to actors and actressess?
Bill:
Actually, I don't think that actors think much about MPAA. They're more concerned about AARP.
6) Galaxy Quest
by vrone
I will preface this by saying I am a mild trekkie and as such, I immensely enjoyed the 1999 film Galaxy Quest.
I think everyone who has seen Galaxy Quest will agree that the show that it is based upon is, in essence, "Star Trek". It follows that Tim Allen's Character was essentially meant to be you.
So my two part question is this: Did you enjoy the show, and, how accurate was their portrayal of life after Trek?
Bill:
Yes, I enjoyed it. I think Tim Allen was very funny. As for accuracy, not at all.
7) Time at McGill
by peg0cjs
It's fairly well known (at least here in Canada) that you attended McGill University for some time. They even went so far as to rename the Student Union building the Shatner Building.
I've heard that you were invited to the renaming ceremony, but refused to attend. I've also heard that you generally speak very poorly of your time at McGill. What was it about McGill that was so dreadful/horrible/annoying/etc that has made you so sour on the subject?
Bill:
Oh Contrare. That's French, in case you need it, for 'to the contrary.' I had a great time at McGill. I did go to a ceremony at the student union building and my feeling about McGill is that it's a great university and it produced many great students. Unfortunately, I was not one of them.
8) Nerine Shatner Memorial Fund
by Tsar
After the tragic and untimely death of your wife Nerine, a recovering alcoholic, you took the courageous step of establishing a fund in her name to benefit Friendly House, an organization for recovering alcoholics. How is that work progressing, and has your involvement with this effort helped you work through this loss?
I know that this subject must be painful for you, but I'm sure there are many in the slashdot community who would benefit from your experience and insights here.
Bill:
Thank you for asking about Nerine's fund. It benefits a rehabilitation place called Friendly House. They do wonderful work. Nerine has a rehabilitation home with her name on it and my hope and sympathy is for these recovering women.
9) Seriously...are we cool?
by CleverNickName
Hey Bill,
Are we cool, or what? I mean, I always thought you didn't like me, but I had a good time with you at Weakest Link watching the World Series.
So are we cool, or was that just pre-game strategy?
Wil
Bill:
Dear Will,
We are so cool, we're beyond cool. We are in orbit man. I don't do pre-game strategy.
I look forward to some personal time with you.
10) The balance between Hollywood and Real Life
by Geek In Training
As a normal everyday guy from Canada, it seems hard for "the public" to grasp the diparity between "Bill Shatner, age 61, three adult children, loves horses" and "Actor/Singer/Producer/Writer William Shatner blah blah blah fourth wife ... blah blah blah personal tragedy .... blah blah blah inside scoop" that Hollywood and the Tabloid press seem to turn everyone's life into.
At the end of the day, has the fame been worth the price? Is knowing that you've raised three daughters and entertained people for several decades worth the cost of your privacy? Do you feel that overall, you've gotten a fair shake, even after all the public airings of your alleged failings as a person? Are you going to continue to live in the limelight during your golden years, or settle in and call it good, letting the cards land where they may?
Do you feel you've finished your professional legacy and are ready to leave it for media history, or do you fret over whether or not that legacy is "good enough?" And the same regarding your personal legacy as a man, a husband, a father, a son? What advice can you give to others so that they don't have any regrets?
Bill:
Regret is the worst of human emotions. There is no going back with regret. There is no future with regret. Regret is not something I live with. If there is something I wished I hadn't done, I don't do it anymore or I forgive myself and try better.
My life is my statement and I try to be true to myself and thusly to other people. Whatever my failings are, they are human and I try to perfect it each day.
Re:French approximation :-) (Score:4, Informative)
And, no, I should not have used the goddamn Preview mode first.
Brevity taken too far? (Score:5, Informative)
Man, my opinion of him has always been mixed, but it went down a couple notches today!
Re:Theatrical Pauses (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Ah... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:No offense but these were some boring questions (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Theatrical Pauses (Score:5, Informative)
Re:In Soviet Russia... (Score:5, Informative)
Due to his extremely chipper demenaor and the fact that his routine rarely changed, he became an annoying cliche. In the years since the Cold War ended and stand up comedy became less popular he apparently retreated to Branson, Missouri and has a theater there.
Somewhat akin to the "all your base..." phonomeon, this "In Soviet Russia..." thing didn't become its own overused cliche until posters on FARK [fark.com], the Slashdot of weird journalism, started adding Smirnov into their Photoshop contests, along with Admiral "It's A Trap!" Ackbar, the squirrel with the giant nuts, and that kitten that dies when you masrutbate.
Re:Not that cool... (Score:5, Informative)
Doesn't Surprise Me (Score:3, Informative)
At least once, they tried to get JTK himself to come and grace their little party. I don't know if they offered to pay him or not, so I'm not saying he should have gone, but his response was basically something like "there's no way in @#^$% that I'm going to Riverside, Iowa." Whether or not he was going to accept the invitation, you'd think the guy could extend basic courtesy.
So, it doesn't surprise me that Kirk seems a little curt. I just think he really might not care much about things trekkie, and he might not care much what other people think about him.
Just my 0.02.
Re:Hey (Score:1, Informative)
Re:No offense but these were some boring questions (Score:4, Informative)
I think the reason for number nine was because Wil Wheaton sells memorabilia of some of his artwork (I use that term loosely, but some are really cute). One of his pieces is a picture of a name tag that reads like this:
"Hello, My Name Is
William Fucking Shatner"
From what I've read on WWDN (wilwheaton.net), Wil was worried that Bill would be offended by the piece, which is also featured on T-shirts sold by Wil. If I recall correctly, Shatner found it funny.
My personal favorite is "Wil's Got A Posse!". I just smile, because it makes me realize that he's just a dude like you and me, who's excited that people like him for what he is and what he's doing now, rather than how they knew him as a child actor. I guess I'm part of the posse, I visit the site about once a week to catch up on what's new in Wil's life
Re:In Soviet Russia... (Score:5, Informative)
The original joke was about television in the USSR. (The USSR being a totalitarian dictatorship, natch.) "Soviet Union isn't that different from America," the joke goes. "Only difference is, in Soviet Union, TV watches you!"
Now y'all all fight over whether I should be moderated +1 Informative, or +1 Funny.
Re:French approximation :-) (Score:3, Informative)
He actually misspelled "Au contraire".
It was mentioned in another thread, but this was an audio interview transcribed by the Slashdot staff. We all know some of them have a hard enough time spelling English right, let alone another language altogether.
Re:This is just the way Shatner is. (Score:2, Informative)
Now, is there ANY DOUBT in people's minds that Bill Shatner IS Captain Kirk?
There you go: Bill Shatner is a good actor.
Thoughts From WilliamShatner.com (Score:2, Informative)
First, having read all of the original questions that were posted, these were pretty much the questions that were asked. My hats go off to Rob and Rob for selecting some of the better ones.
I think Bill would have really enjoyed the opportunity to talk about technology though (a topic nobody seemed to have any questions on). He wrote a book called "I'm Working on That" which is essentially his experience interviewing scientists all over the world who are working on technologies that were inspired by Star Trek.
Bill is probably not the guy you want setting up Qmail on your Linux box but he does have a very real interest in various technologies and their impact on our day to day lives.
And speaking of Qmail and Linux, he was involved in the decision to move his website from Microsoft technologies to Linux, Apache, PHP, PostNuke, and MySQL. I think he appreciated the ideals open source represents and supported the time and effort it took to convert everything over.
Let's face it though, Bill will always be associated with Trek and some of the experimental things he's attempted over the years. Even at 71 he's still trying new stuff. One of his latest experiments has been with paintball where he recently helped stage the largest scenario paintball tournament ever, Spplat Attack [spplatattack.com], and donated the proceeds of the event to charity. Over 1500 people split up into Klingon, Borg and Federation teams spraying paint for 8 straight hours.
So, not to sound (too) defensive , he can only answer the questions you pose to him.
Re:Is it any wonder? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:French approximation :-) (Score:2, Informative)
Oh, except for the fact that he gave an audio interview, and the results were *transcribed* (that means someone listened to speech and typed it up as text) by slashdot staffers.
So any spelling mistakes are slashdot's, not Shatner's.
more detail from the onion (Score:3, Informative)
Re:French approximation :-) (Score:1, Informative)
Why?
Go back and study your World History. Specifically 1940 and the length of time it took for Germany to conquor France.
Re:Not that cool... (Score:3, Informative)
Slashdot interviews are almost always email, and are always posted verbatim except for HTML formatting.
Come to think of it, the next one is going to be verbatim *including* the interviewee's own markup, since it's about handicapped site usability and he used XHTML as part of his point.
- Robin
Bad Interview (Score:2, Informative)