INTERVIEW: Shatner Talks ‘Up Till Now’
Welcome back to another edition of VulkonLIVE! This is Jay Johnson Joining me right now, via the magic of ISDN so it sounds like he’s right here in the studio with me is none other than William Shatner, Captain Kirk himself, Mr. Shatner, hello sir!
Hello there!
It’s a pleasure, a real pleasure to speak with you…
No it’s my pleasure to talk to you…
Your memoir is Up Till Now…
Up Till Now, it’s in the book stores right now.
Why this precise moment to put your life down on paper?
Well, I had been thinking about it for quite some time. My main ambition was to let my children and my grand children know who I am, a little bit of who I am. And so I thought this would be, in effect, a legacy. This is who I was, in some part. So it is my gift to my kids, but it is also a fun read. Fairly amusing and fairly touching.
Y’know they always say there’s no second act in life, but you have to be on your third, fourth or fifth.
Uh, the sixth act…and it’s not a well made play…
Now I don’t want to become the object of hate to all of our Trekkies listening, because I myself am a Trekker, but what does it feel like to have the adulation of so many for a show that, well, didn’t do all that well initially?
It’s, it’s astonishing and somewhat shocking because the actual television show of Star Trek, the one that I was on, was over forty years ago and then we made six movies a decade later and somehow the legacy lives on and I don’t understand it.
At that time, did you consider it groundbreaking? Or was it more like “What the heck am I doing?”
Well…that’s exactly my state of mind all the time. For example, here we are, Boston Legal, we’ve been renewed for our fifth year. When it’s over, say it’s over next year, to all intents and purposes it’s over. That’s the end of that gig it was great fun, I love the people and maybe it’s done. But who knows?
You’ve portrayed so many iconic characters on television and film, and now you’re boldly going into new media…in specific, a video blog about your life…
‘A video blog about my life…’ I’ve got a — I’ve got a website: williamshatner.com or shatnervision.com …yeah it reflects my life. My daughter interviews me with great frequency. She’s running the site and we sort of connect with the fans. This book is an attempt to reach out to the fans and say ‘here’s what it was like’. So there’s a constant flow of information between me and anybody who might be interested in what I’m doing.
Which means about everyone…was there a moment in your performing life when you said to yourself, “It will never be the same after this?”
Well showbiz-wise starring on Broadway and I thought, my life will never be the same, and it was always–it never, it never is quite what you think it is. You think, well my life will never be the same then the next day you wake up and you have the same aches and pains or you have the same thing for breakfast. it doesn’t–change like that is…tectonic, it happens very very slowly. And then one day you wake up and say what happened to the guy that…that was?
We can assume from the title of your memoir that there is plenty more to come. So what’s next for William Shatner?
Well, talking to you is the next step…and then on from there. I’ve got a talk show this year on Biography Channel, part of A&E. It’s called ‘Raw Nerve’ and I’ll be talking to people the way you are and trying to touch a raw nerve. Everything depends on the guest, as you well know. So we’re in the process of booking and doing guests. Boston Legal is on…I’m at work on some feature things an animated feature. A script for live action…a very busy schedule.
The book is Up Till Now…Mr. Shatner, thanks so much for being on VulkonLIVE! today…
Thank you, thanks for having me.
That was exciting! Special thanks to all my friends over at Renda Broadcasting for the use of their studios in order to do the ISDN connection. I hope that in the future we might be able to do more interviews of that same quality and caliber, so till then I’m Jay Johnson and this has been VulkonLIVE!
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