The State of Shatner

I posted the following two comments on TrekMovie.com, in response to an excerpt from director Nicholas Meyer's forthcoming book, The View From the Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood.

"I love William Shatner. His Capt. Kirk was my boyhood hero, and still, to this day, his TOS and movie performances resonate with me deeply.

"I’ll never know firsthand what he’s like to work with, but when so many of his ST fellows have lodged the same complaints about his behavior on set, and when he, in turn, has repeatedly professed his innocence and ignorance of where such reactions could possibly have come from, well … it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that something’s rotten in the state of Shatner.

"I enjoyed the above excerpt from Nick Meyer’s book, even as I sat here shaking my head in disbelief at the number of takes it took to get Shatner to deliver 'Here it comes' as memorably and perfectly as he finally did. It’s hard to read and accept the sorry truth about an actor who has brought so much to my life through his performances.

"Nevertheless, I look forward to Meyer’s account. Through his work and his commentaries, it’s clear that he’s an excellent judge of character and knows exactly how to extract brilliant performances from the actors in his charge."

[...]

"It’s not about the number of times it took Shatner to deliver the performance he finally did. I was commenting on Meyer’s assertion that it was only when Shatner became 'bored' with repeating the scene over and over that he dropped his 'attitude' and 'became Kirk.'

"'Sorry truth' speaks to my reluctance to accept that Shatner, the man I idolized for his performances as Kirk, wasn’t himself an idol. He was difficult to work with. He wasn’t perfect. He was human. We all are. I was just saying that it’s hard for me to reconcile the 'two Shatners.'"