Posted:
19:25:15 on June 17 2002
By: GustavoLeao
Dept: People
The latest issue of DreamWatch magazine, just out in the UK, features an exclusive interview with TOS star Willliam Shatner, in which he talked about his recent projects. Here are excerpts of the 5-page interview :
Question : You've just finished a movie called Shoot or Be Shot. What's the story with that ?
SHATNER : Actually Ralph Winter who produced the Star Trek movies came to me with a script which I thought was very funny. They were doing it for very little money - and this independent film-making is intriguing to me. Anyway, I agreed to do it, and we went out into the desert with a wonderful script, wonderful actors, and director J. Randall Argue and Ralph. Ralph is one of the biggest producers in town now, but he just wanted to do it which, I think, show you how good it was. So now it's out, and there's a buzz in the industry about it.
Question : I read that you were jokingly considering going door-to-door to convince people to buy Star Trek V on DVD. What are your views on it now ? It's a good film...
SHATNER : Yeah, I think it's a good film. The lessons of Star Trek V are, for me, the art of compromise...I had learned from Star Trek V that when you feel strongly about something, when you have a passion - and you have to be honest with yourself that it isn't a conceit - you should "follow your bliss", and that's exactly what I learned to do with that movie. But I learned it after Star Trek V and not during it, because the premise of that movie was that our beloved cast goes in search of God and find the Devil instead; that was too profound and too troublemaking an idea for the studio to handle, and I compromised on the basic premise of the movie and therefore robbed the movie of its basic energy. I didn't realise it at the time, only much later...too late. On the other hand, I spent $30 million and not many people can do that in a couple of months [laughs] !
Question : Is the philosophy of compromise something that works ?
SHATNER : Oh, yes ! And people are so attracted by passion, because so few people have it. But on the subject of handing-over, when the Star Trek movies finished as far as I was concerned, I went on to write a series of books that became four movies - the Tek series - and there the lessons of Star Trek V came back to me. I directed the first Tek movie and the network loved it. In fact the head of the network said it was the best piece of television he'd ever seen... He was subsequently fired ! He knew ! So there has been a continuum of creative events in my life, reaching a crescendo now as I'm getting older and wiser. But there's been so much which is creative and different and I'm gratified.
Question : Did you take naturally to the writing process or, like Samuel Johnson, have to be strapped into your chair every morning and forced to write ?
SHATNER : It's tough ! But I've avoided that as much as possible by using dictation machines and bringing somebody aboard with me. Even as we speak, a writer I've hired is working on a screeplay on a very interesting subject. I wrote the story and he's doing the most arduous process of actually writing the screenplay.
Question : You can't do a Mind Meld 2 ?
SHATNER : That's an interesting dilemma which I'm looking at. Can I do that kind of no-holds-barred dialogue with someone else ? Could I interest Patrick Stewart in doing something like that ? Would he be willing to lower his defences and allow me to examine his mind in the same way ? Could I go to Marlon Brando, as actor to actor, and discuss our experiences ? You need a mature person who no longer has anything to hide. I know how difficult is to get a good interview with someone, but it's worth trying again.
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