Slashdot Mirror
Ask William Shatner
At long last William Shatner has volunteered himself to be strapped into the Slashdot Interviewee Victim Chair. You know the gig: Post your questions for the man, the moderators do their thing, and in a week or so we post the answers. So here's your chance to ask questions to the star of Iron Chef USA, Miss Congeniality and TJ Hooker!
As a normal everyday guy from Canada, it seems hard for "the public" to grasp the diparity between "Bill Shatner, age 61, three adult children, loves horses" and "Actor/Singer/Producer/Writer William Shatner blah blah blah fourth wife ... blah blah blah personal tragedy .... blah blah blah inside scoop" that Hollywood and the Tabloid press seem to turn everyone's life into.
At the end of the day, has the fame been worth the price? Is knowing that you've raised three daughters and entertained people for several decades worth the cost of your privacy? Do you feel that overall, you've gotten a fair shake, even after all the public airings of your alleged failings as a person? Are you going to continue to live in the limelight during your golden years, or settle in and call it good, letting the cards land where they may?
Do you feel you've finished your professional legacy and are ready to leave it for media history, or do you fret over whether or not that legacy is "good enough?" And the same regarding your personal legacy as a man, a husband, a father, a son? What advice can you give to others so that they don't have any regrets?
SlashSigTheorem: Humorous, Political, Critical, Constructive- If you have a
I'm gonna get flamed for sounding like a big fat meanie for saying this but, come on! Shatner is an actor. Actors act, they don't know squat about science, foreign policy, or the price of tea in China. (for the most part, of course, please excuse my generalization).
Granted, actors are people too *cough*, and they're entitled to their incorrect opinion just like the rest of us. But to ask them questions on subjects based on their acting resume is just plain foolish. Shatner doesn't have some keen insight into the nature of the Universe because he played a star ship captain.
As I understand it, Jeffery Hunter was originally offered the part of Captain Captain of the Enterprise (he played Christopher Pike in the Pilot), but turned it down after the Pilot was filmed. First, is this accurate, and second:
Obviously, this was your big break into showbusiness, but did it feel like it at the time. How did this part come to you, and when did you realize this show would be this big, when did you realize you had been typecast and that you would be forever known as Captain Kirk, and did you go through any of the disgust with that typecast like Leonard Nemoy did?