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William Shatner on Watching Himself as Captain Kirk in The Original Series

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By GustavoLeao / 09:15, 17 August 2008 / People

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The Times posted a new interview with Star Trek star William Shatner and here are few excerpts.

"I never had any expectation," he says bluntly about his career. "I attribute a great deal of it all to luck. I think the pursuit of success is environmental - I had wonderful parents who encouraged and supported me and taught me the value of money and hard work."

When he watches himself as a young Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek The Original Series episodes, he says the man on screen is unrecognisable to him.


"He's a complete stranger," he says. "Not only is he physically foreign, emotionally I don't know where I was at that time. There's also a certain amount of revulsion involved - how could I have looked that young? What happened? I should have taken more vitamins. It's totally science-fictional."


The full interview is here.



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By: TRexx (Odo's file, contact) @ 16:30:28 on Aug 17, 2008

Quote from cdydatzigs:
As shocking as this may sound to many of the Shatner fans here...


This is old hat among Shatner fans, so again you speak in ignorance of what others understand.

The common phenomenon (which is now all too poignant for Shatner) isn't tied to any vocation -- it's about anything and everything that's essentially taken for granted in life, particularly throughout one's youth.

Shatner again touches upon this in the "You'll have time" track of his Has Been album, in which hindsight regrets not having lived life fully in the moment, too late when comes the maw of death...

Maybe you won't suffer; maybe it's quick
But you'll have time to think
"Why did I waste it?"
"Why didn't I taste it?"

You'll have time
'Cause you're gonna die


(complete lyrics)


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No surprise here. | Report this post to moderator
By: cdydatzigs (Odo's file, contact) @ 13:48:01 on Aug 17, 2008

Quote:
He's a complete stranger," he says. "Not only is he physically foreign, emotionally I don't know where I was at that time. There's also a certain amount of revulsion involved - how could I have looked that young? What happened? I should have taken more vitamins. It's totally science-fictional.

As shocking as this may sound to many of the Shatner fans here, his opinion of his performance is not all that uncommon. Many actors and actresses are completely detatched from their perfomances on screen - seeing themselves during the premier and then never again. Shatner is probably the epitomy of this way of thinking. From refusing to see themselves during the dailies, to being revulsed at the final image of themselves on screen? Many of you will just have to accept the fact that 77 year-old William Shatner is completely removed from the TOS Kirk character he pioneered.

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-- Steve
"If a sixth Star Trek television series is ever realized, it will be set in the new universe." -- cdydatzigs, June 15, 2009.


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  • RE: No surprise here. | Report this post to moderator
    By: steveleenow (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 10:17:54 on Aug 18, 2008

    I think you have it wrong. He's not talking about looking at the character he played back in the 1960s from the point of view of today as a 77 year old man.

    That does not mean he is removed from the TOS Kirk of the feature films - if they had found a way to have him in the new film.

    Like Ford's Indy aged, so too did Kirk.

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    http://www.steveleenow.net/


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    • RE: No surprise here. | Report this post to moderator
      By: TRexx (Odo's file, contact) @ 11:49:04 on Aug 18, 2008

      Quote from steveleenow:
      He's not talking about looking at the character he played back in the 1960s from the point of view of today as a 77 year old man.


      Bingo. Shatner's insight is personal, not an opinion of his character or performance as young Kirk.

      In an interview circulated by the media in June, Shat gave a positive assessment of what he made of Kirk in TOS: "I haven't seen myself playing Captain Kirk in a long, long time," Shatner said. "And I watched it now, from my perspective of 40 years later, and I thought, 'You know, that's rather good.'"


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  • RE: No surprise here. | Report this post to moderator
    By: Scottrek (Odo's file, contact) @ 16:14:44 on Aug 17, 2008

    It may be the case that many actors are "completely detached" from their performances, but I'm not really sure that's the case with William Shatner. A guy who's (ghost)written many books about Kirk after the end of his run on the series, expressed disappointment at not being in the new film, and now constantly thanks his lucky stars that something he did "on a lark" has turned out so well for him is anything but disconnected. The guy loves Kirk, pure and simple. His issue, in this interview as before, seems to be more with the fact that he's getting older--he contrasts his younger self with his older self and balks at the difference. I doubt he had any issues watching himself when he was young and fit. Not that I'm saying anything against the guy now--I hope I'm as aware/insightful at 77! I'm just saying, he'd have the same reaction to his younger visage in the "there's something on the wing" Twilight Zone episode! Just my two cents.


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    • RE: No surprise here. | Report this post to moderator
      By: cdydatzigs (Odo's file, contact) @ 18:55:05 on Aug 17, 2008

      Quote:
      I'm just saying, he'd have the same reaction to his younger visage in the "there's something on the wing" Twilight Zone episode...

      Exactly right. His commentary was more about being and looking young, than the character he played. But because the bulk of his time playing Kirk occured during this fog of time that Shatner seems to have a hard time associating himself with... it is possible the later films are the only ones he can still relate too.

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      -- Steve
      "If a sixth Star Trek television series is ever realized, it will be set in the new universe." -- cdydatzigs, June 15, 2009.


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      • RE: No surprise here. | Report this post to moderator
        By: TRexx (Odo's file, contact) @ 04:17:03 on Aug 18, 2008

        Quote from cdydatzigs:
        ...during this fog of time that Shatner seems to have a hard time associating himself with..


        There isn't a "fog."

        Scottrek gets it: "he contrasts his younger self with his older self and balks at the difference."

        Shatner's "emotionally, I don't know where I was at that time" is an exclamation in hindsight, a la "What on earth was I thinking then?" This isn't confusion, it's a disbelief. Ditto for a disbelief in his change in physical appearance.

        A self-aware person who experiences mental-emotional growth can see a "stranger" in their younger self.


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        • RE: No surprise here. | Report this post to moderator
          By: cdydatzigs (Odo's file, contact) @ 07:37:23 on Aug 18, 2008

          I think you are nitpicking my choice of words as per usual. Anyone with common sense could see that. If you weren't so busy selling DVDs on Trekweb and listening to awful albums by Shatner, even a Thesaurus-raping idiot like you could have seen that.

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          -- Steve
          "If a sixth Star Trek television series is ever realized, it will be set in the new universe." -- cdydatzigs, June 15, 2009.


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