William Shatner - Actor HARDtalk

or incomplete. Now on BBC News it's To date we go baldly to one of the

more bizarre corners of Planet showbiz. It's the international

Star Trek convention in London, a magnet for thousands of Trekkies -

devotees of the Star trek cult from all over the world. We speak to the

veteran Hollywood actor William Shatner who will forever be known

to these fans as Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. He has had

a career spanning 60 years of highs and lows. How does he feel about

William Shona, will come to show marked. -- William Shatner. He

we're, the first major tricky Convention in London. I wonder

whether you sometimes feel as though you're stuck in a time-warp?

I think the British are a little behind the times. The Olympics have

come to London and so has Star Trek. When you wish you could have moved

on and left Captain Kirk behind? You have this myopic vision that I

am Captain Kirk for 36 years. Some other things have happened to me.

We came to London, did a talk show. People laughed. There are other

things that happen. I know that. I want to talk about that. In these

into a moment, like a convention, and you say my life is filled with

Captain Kirk. It is not. I go to an occasional Convention. I wanted to

come to this one because of its proportions. I am here but Star

Trek has pursued me in the way that it has offered me celebrity through

which I have done that these other things. I want to talk about the

other things. You've done a whole host not just acting by a music as

well and different forms of public performance. Before we get into

that, if we start with Star Trek. 1966. When you set out on the

journey. Did you have a feeling this was going to be big? The sort

of TV show that would last? norm in showbusiness is for a year.

-- is for a beer. I approach every project as an actor approaches

hoping it will be decent and people will like it. The concept of a 46

years later talking about it, a soap for removed from reality will

be judged insane and have to be struck down if he were to say I

have just had a vision - these pilots I am making, 50 years from

now, I'm going to be in London with over 30,000 people coming partially

to say hello to me. It is insanity. No. The best thing you could hope

for it is a renewal. They gamine 13 weeks segments in the US. You do

the first 13 and you hope for a kicker. Will they pick up the next

13. Will they pick up the second. And by the third you, they did not

pick it up for a fourth. It was great, I loved the people. It was

done. You say you love it at that time. I want to try to get you go

back to 1966 - 1968. People analyse start mack, so many messages they

read it in to it. What are the creators of the show did with it.

When you look at this group and you looked at, for example, the Inter

racial caste, the messengers to some he gave about the civil rights

movement and about the Cold War, did you read that in Tweet at the

time? Those messengers were there. Star Trek is alive today for many

reasons. All of them ballot. In a recent documentary, I discovered a

more basic reason that I hadn't thought. One of the reasons it has

continued to be popular is the best start tracks have an underlying

philosophy. There was a way of dramatising things now happening at

the time they were salient at that time, using science fiction as a

means of conveying a message. were the key issues that Star Trek

is addressing? It could be anything. He could be a man woman

relationship. It could be sexual, social, the black-and-white

question, armaments race, Russia and America, at it does best, you

could say, is that about the future or the present underlying

everything. Those were the best start tracks. Those were the

episode I 0.2 were not only humane and exciting as an adventure story

but had an underlying meaning. Those were the best stories anyway.

There is one incident that sticks in many people's mind because it

made a little bit of television history - the keys between you and

the lieutenant, who I should say, she is an African-American woman.

It was a queues which was many shocking at the time. At that time

50 years ago, the context was different. In certain places in the

US. Not every plays. In the 60s there was a lot of contention going

on. Yes, I kissed the beautiful girl who happen to be a different

colour than me. But she was a beautiful woman. And, yes, the

character was forced to, by these god-like creature to kiss her. It

was not like I grabbed her defying convention. There were a lot of

interesting layers of things going on. Some stations, television

stations, in the US, particularly in the south, where there was a

great deal of turmoil going on, did not play that episode at the time.

That is true. But far more, I think, has been made of it than actually...

You in your mid-30s, will you highly politicised, we used signing

up to the messengers that they were putting into the show because you

were there yourself politically? Absolutely. Everybody has a little

colour that is going on. In my case, I am a comedian. There was no

question of black and white in the States was not my question. I never

any of those layers in my life growing up. I was colour-blind. I

was aware, in fact, had made a move in the south at that time about the

integration of schools and now lives were threatened. Essentially,

I just thought Michelle has a beautiful woman. As we discussed it,

there was so much of a message about the need for co-operation and

a unity amongst the crew of the enterprise to make it impossible to

overcome the challenge us in deep space and yet, as I read it, at the

time, in those three years of making the first Star Trek series,

there were lots of attention going on in the cast. Not within the cast.

At that time, no. We're talking about my awareness. A man who

became a great friend later, he said at the time it was like

sibling rivalry. After a few weeks, they were getting messages saying

they were seeing more of spot. -- Spock. That could be a problem for

the leading man, you do not like it so much. It was not there at the

delighted, I did not understand. Here was a acting my heart out and

they were asking for more of the guy of the pointy ears. So, I, as

an actor, did not understand. was you ego kicking him? My ego and

why is that happening. Leonard me Mollie is a wonderful man and over

many years, if we're talking about the free use of the series, I

cannot recall anything more than an occasional moment of anxiety. My

recollection is extraordinarily friendly. You must have been aware

that other cast members, afterwards suggested, to be polite, you had a

big ego and were somewhat insecure about others giddy the limelight?

That is their interpretation. Michelle and George were people who

came in for a day, maybe, in a week of ten days of shooting, they were

not there very often. After the show was over, and it became

popular, they would go to conventions like these and suddenly

begin to realise, you know, I should have had my own show. Then

they began to write books about my ego. I do not have an ego. The

thing I'm most proud of his my professionalism and my ability to

work with people. I never had, in three years of association with

them, I never had a bad word with any of them. But especially with

George and McQualter. It was only used later -- and water. Was only

years later when I discovered not make a was writing a book, and I

interview George and I went to his house, his a barman a beautiful

apartment. We spoke well. Nothing untoward happen. And then I went on

to Michelle and went to her house and interviewed her for the ball. I

finish this Lovely interview and I go up to leave and she said, this

is years later, and you wanna know how much we hated you? Excuse me, I

sat back down and included it in my book. I was shot. They may have had

days feelings then, they never express them and not for years

afterwards. You talk about the way a series took off, long after you

stop making the original shows. In the 70s and 80s, the amount of

interest that developed in the characters, the actors, was in

numbers. At the height in the 80s, there were 300 Convention the year.

Devoted to starch it. Did you at some point sate yourself, I cannot

handle this. This is becoming something that is beyond... I did

not go to those conventions. In the beginning, I thought, that is not

what actors do. So I did not go. Then, when I heard 15,000 people

would come at a time I thought, I'd better find out what is going on.

Then, the idea of standing in front of 15,000 people and not have any

prepared material to at least, like you and I am doing, became somewhat

overwhelming until I became used to it. I would go to an occasional

Convention but not to that 300 or 400. I know it was a sketch show

and it was supposed to be funny but was that a grain of truth when he

said in Saturday Night Live he did once say to the fans, the Trekkies,

to get a life, for crying out loud, it is only a television show?

was meant to be fun. And, in fact, I wrote a book examining the people

who came to the convention and I recently directed a documentary

which I called, and get a life in which I make these discoveries

about why people go to these conventions. People, interview was

over the years have said, what is the reason for the continuing

popularity of Star Trek and at first I would make a joke and say

it was me and then go on to the underlying story - action and

adventure and science fiction and It is interesting to compare

Captain Kirk, in the early shows he was courageous, on top of every

problem, he was immensely impressive, in the end things

worked out. In your own life after Star Trek he had some real

difficulties. In the 70s when the show was not being picked up in the

early days, you have described how your life became very tough. You're

not getting work. You were living without a permanent home for a

while? How did that work for you? am willing to talk about that.

had been a leading man, you had the adulation that came with all of

that. If found a period of trough in your career where it went down

head. -- you found. After Star Trek was cancelled and I had been

divorced. I had three kids to sustain. I was working, I have

always worked as an actor. But the pay, as light as it was back then

compare it to now, come there was not a great deal of money. --

compared. There was no money coming in. I had a lot of expenses. Indeed,

I went out and I went to summer theatres for vacation audiences.

You lift out the back of your truck? Yes, I did. How do I relate

that to been popular on television? The real and constant insecurity of

the actor. You do not really know where you are going. Absolutely.

That was a dichotomy for me. Having come off as the leading man of a

series and then be homeless, absolutely. If we fast-forward

through the extraordinary highs and lows, including Emmy Awards.

Playing a character who many would argue is not dissimilar to were

William Shatner. You became a spokesman for an internet...

Priceline.com. You are still working on it. That actor's

insecurity, as it always been with you? Absolutely. Some actors have

told me they are very choosy about the parts they play. They have to

consider their brand. I do not understand that. I do not

understand that thinking. We are so out of control of what our life is.

The actor might think I'm going to choose this role because it has the

elements... As we say, failure is more the norm. The high-minded

strategy does not work. There are some roles that you look back on

and you think, my God, I wish I had not done that? Absolutely. Many

things. Maybe even most things I wish I had not had to do. But that

is not the way a working actor does it. You struggle to make something

better than it is because you are bringing yourself to it. That is

always a struggle. Some things turn out to be worse than they look at

first glance. Some things turn out to be better. You cannot forecast.

Some of the most dire things I was in turned out to be popular. I

could not understand it. Some element that you never saw. When

you do a play, when you play in front of an audience for the first

time, there are laughs, reactions, that you would not have guessed.

You cannot foretell what is going to be successful. What you seem to

have developed, what has been a massive hit around the world, this

sort of knowing, slightly self- mocking sense you have, you know

people see as were William Shatner and partly that is related to

Captain Kirk, it is a rather noble and grand image. Yet, nowadays you

play with that. You market at the same time as living it. I am not

living it or mocking it. You have asked to sit down and talk to me

because we are at a Star Trek convention. I'm doing the Captain

Kirk thing because that is what you are here to see. The Captain Kirk

thing is me. I am also a guy who has lived here is beyond that and

have the experience and time and thoughts of 50 years. -- years. If

I did not have that experience, I would be a miserable human being.

You are not frightened to do things that some would regard as risky?

I'm thinking of your follies into rock and roll and making music?

That is true. I love music and I have always wanted to be able to

sing, I can't. Some people said, most recently a television show,

they want to use common people, which I did as one of the cover

songs on an album I did, they want to use it in their show because

they said it was the best version of it. I did a rock'n'roll song.

Common People. Some people think it has some quality to it. You do not

worry whether people are laughing at you all with you? I cannot

control that. Sometimes I'm doing it as a joke, sometimes I'm not

doing it as a joke. Doing it as a joke is a bit hard. Sometimes I am

playing with it, sometimes I am not playing with it. You are still

working on a whole bunch of different projects. You are still

planning to take on a one-man show in the US, you have done it on

Broadway. Son told him I do it in London. It is fantastically

grovelling. -- some talk. Won by five hours on stage, on urine, at

what point with you consider withdrawing from the very public

life? 1.5 hours. You know how your breath rattles when you take your

last... Just then. You have had some very difficult times. You had

to live through the loss of your third life, who was found drowned

in your home Simeon Bull in the US. You wrote a song about that. --

swimming pool. Had he said, it is time to withdraw? I would miss it

talking to you. -- have you said. Had he enjoyed this few moments?

find it fascinating. Why would I want to give that up? You can leave

your life on stage and find your own personal path at the same time?

Live. My life on the stage, on film, wherever it is is part of my life.

There is a vast other parts I sometimes share with the public,

sometimes I do not. It has to do with children, love, dogs, horses,