William Shatner’s role as Captain Kirk in Star Trek is iconic and his unique style has been been the source of a number of impressions and spoofs for years. Now the man himself assesses how they’ve done. He also takes a look at his own performances over the years.
Shatner on Shatners
Vanity Fair has posted a video featuring William Shatner reviewing a number of impressions of himself, including from Seth MacFarlane, Jason Alexander, John Belushi, Jim Carrey, Bruce Campbell, and even Bill Nye “The Science Guy.” He even weighs in on Chris Pine’s SNL skit. And for the most part, he just doesn’t think he talks that way. Check it out…
Shatner on Shatner
And Esquire had a similar idea this week, having Shatner comment on some of his own performances.
Bonus video: Bill and the TOS cast
Much has been said about William Shatner’s relationship with his co-stars on Star Trek. Today he shared a brief video on Twitter showing the fun they had on set, with the message “See what a horrible person I was to the cast?”
See what a horrible person I was to the cast? 🤷🏼♂️🙄🤣 #thetruthisoutthere https://t.co/VYSFCTZzyf
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) September 17, 2021
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Bill is hilarious! All hail the Shat!!!
Just Love It ! Bill is still engaging the Star Trek Fans ! He’s still The Man ! Go Bill !
I swear this man is timeless.
Mr. Shatner is a national treasure. It is crazy how young he appears for a 90 year old. And it’s shameful they haven’t figured out a way to get him back in Star Trek in a meaningful way. C’mon Alex. Make it happen :-)
‘how do you feel, jim?’
‘i feel young!’
I need an ST storyline featuring an ‘alternate universe’ version of ‘Kirk’ involving present day Bill, NOW! ;)
I want Q to undo Star Trek Generations.
@ amirami – these days I just jump from ‘Undiscovered Country’ to ‘First Contact, job done.
I can accept your canon
So what happened to the Enterprise D, and why does Data have emotions now?
@ Legate Damar – well, in the same way that I’m content to have Geordi La Forge fitted with new ‘eye implants’ *offscreen* when we see him in ‘First Contact’, I’m equally content for Data to have had his ’emotion chip’ fitted *offscreen* too, when I miss out the ‘Generations’ movie. Picard mentions the chip when Data expresses fear, and suggests he turns it off, which he does, so that’s all the info. I require to let me know that he’s had it implanted now.
As far as the Enterprise D goes….well it’s either been DECOMMISSIONED *offscreen* by the time we see the crew upgraded to the Enterprise E in ‘First Contact’….or it’s still in Starfleet use *somewhere* out there, depending on how I feel at the time. :)
The time traveling Picard already rewrote the time traveling he did in GENERATIONS when he went further back beyond that in FIRST CONTACT and rewrote the first warp drive launch. The ripples from that moved forward through time and rewrote Kirk’s supposed death. Someone just needs to tell the tale.
not even Q can sort that mess out
Would love to see an MST3K style show with Shatner and Schwarzenegger doing commentaries to… well, anything.
You should make mention of it to the MST3K Team !
I genuinely love Shatner, but if he thinks this isn’t what he sounds like, he might be the least self-aware person out there. I can only hope he’s kidding. :)
cary grant said the same about tony curtis in ‘some like it hot’
He did? That’s hilarious! :D (and the movie is hilarious too!).
They’re mimicking Bill’s acting and style , even exaggerating it for effect . I thought Seth’s version was nearly spot-on . I have seen others imitate him.. is there going to be a Part 2 ? And there was an American (Canadian?) actor in the 1990’s who was nearly identical to him with a comparative voice too ?
Kevin Pollak?
No , Disinvited . Kevin is a well known and liked actor , but too short .
darfyn,
there is a Canadian voice actor named Maurice LaMarche who does a decent William Shatner impersonation.
I don’t think so , Harry . The actor I’m after looked more like Aaron Eckhart (though not him) , and had Bill’s build , hair and voice . I think he was more of a tv actor around 5’9″-6’0″ . Bill is 5’8″ . I haven’t seen him much since 2000 . But I did notice another actor who could also fit in the similarity since .
Are you thinking of Jay Mohr, darfyn? He is also a superb impressionist.
I’m impressed with your choice , but the actor wasn’t an impressionist . He was in a tv suspense drama . While watching I was just surprised , because at first I thought it was Bill , and that Bill had had some cosmetic work and dyed his hair to get work again in the late 90’s or early 2000’s . Until I realised it was another actor who looked remarkably like him .
Well, Mohr is also a talented actor, so my mind went in that direction.
The search continues…..and, if this guy had an acting style like Shatner…….should we maybe call this The Search For Schlock? :>)
Seth was great and Jim Carey was also real good.
Bill, you can be so funny, admit they’ re good impressions…
Great man, and very funny! Just saw him speak in NJ last weekend and he was fantastic!
Worst looking shirt like ever though…lol
I love the fact that he can literally make fun of himself these days. This is a trait that I think more people need to have instead of being so darn serious all the time. Life is too short to be serious all the time.
It seems like he used to take himself a little too seriously, so it’s nice to see him lighten up. He’s a very like-able dude!
Amen to that.
The worst impression I’ve seen of Kirk was by whoever the guy that played him in The Final Frontier. Nothing like him.
‘captain, not in front of the klingons’
hahaha. Yeah, I think that was just William Shatner playing William Shatner.
According to Nicholas Meyer, the only way to get a good performance out of William Shatner was to wear him down with multiple takes. I don’t think the director of Star Trek 5 was aware of that.
Best alternate performance i saw, was on Star Trek Continues.
That guy was not just playing Kirk. He was playing Shatner who plays Kirk.
That Fan-Series was outstanding !
You are absolutely correct. That guy really nailed it. The best Star Trek fan series.
Pine’s version is great and so is the Shat’s reaction to it! He truly got the metalevel paradox and elaborated upon it. Now I want Lex Kirby, who will play Kirk in 2049, to do a Pine impersonation :-)
I thought he was going to hate all of them but I think he started to realize he actually does sound like that but did not really want to admit it. He like what Bruce Campbell said because I think Shatner said something to that effect at one point. But he really is getting fed up with Max!
The 5 stages of Bill Shatner
Nice reference!
If the reader doesn’t know… Ricardo Montalban once said the 5 stages of an actor’s career are:
Who is Ricardo Montalban?
Get me Ricardo Montalban.
Get me a Ricardo Montalban type.
Get me a young Ricardo Montalban.
Who is Ricardo Montalban?
Nice.
And here’s the Esquire segment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hwmCXApVqo
LLAP
How do you separate Kirk from Shatner. He isn’t really as much Kirk as Nimoy was Spock. But i’d argue Kirk is him. Pine isn’t very much like Shatner at all. I don’t see it and i don’t know why Tarantino did. Pine seemed to be trying to do the Harrison Ford thing, playing Han Solo as Kirk
That was brilliant. Well played, sir.
I loved this.
Enjoyable.
Shatner I think knows very well what the score is here. He’s having fun.
You’re beginning to annoy me, Mac…..
“See what a horrible person I was to the cast?“
What about when the cameras were off, Shatman?