Shatner Answers Fan Questions
2 min readIn a series of questions posed by Time Magazine, William Shatner‘s answers were sometimes expected, but other times surprising.
Asked if he felt he had put the Captain Kirk stereotype behind him, Shatner said, “Probably not, but who cares? It was a wonderful show and so if you want to say ‘beam me up’ I’m prepared to nod in assent and poke you in the eye.”
When asked “If you could share one secret about William Shatner, what would it be,” Shatner showed an actor’s insecurity. “The secret it, don’t tell anybody,” he joked at first, before turning serious. “I know what I’m doing, but I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m continually being lashed by the concept that I don’t really know what I’m doing, in anything – relationships, driving, talking to you.”
Another question related to his acting work. “What’s your most embarrassing moment on set,” he was asked. “You’re in front of an audience, maybe four or five hundred people, and [you] can’t remember the words,” Shatner answered. “That’s an embarrassment I can’t get over, even though it’s quite common to screw up in front of an audience in a situation comedy.”
Surprisingly, Shatner’s most defining moment in his career has nothing to do with his work as an actor. “There have been many,” he said. “I won a saddle in a horse competition recently and that’s about as good as an Oscar as far as I’m concerned.”