| Beaming
into
summer
>> William
Shatner on the festive season in our passionate city
by MATTHEW HAYS
Like it or lump it, William Shatner is probably our most
famous export-ever. Forget Leonard Cohen, Pierre Elliot Trudeau or Mordecai
Richler, no doubt Shatner’s name will elicit the most responses
worldwide, easily outdoing any songwriter, literati or world leader.
Which makes sense, really,
considering that his five-year mission-started almost 40 years ago now-led
to the most successful TV franchise in the history of the medium. Since
then, Shatner got washed up, tried to launch himself in some other TV
series, denounced his Kirk character, cut an album, then did a successful
cop TV series, then became a multi-millionaire doing Kirk once more,
then did books, CD-ROMs, DVDs and-well, let’s just say he’s
created his own private enterprise.
In the spirit of our annual
Hot Summer Guide and in honour of his high ranking in our Best of Montreal
readership survey, the Mirror decided to check in with Shatner to wax
nostalgic about his childhood in our fair burg. The former Star Fleet
captain graciously spoke with us from his L.A. office.
Mirror:
In our recent Best of Montreal survey, you won best actor and came in
3rd in most desirable man category.
William Shatner:
That’s neat.
M: I want
to ask you some Montreal questions…
WS: After that, how can I refuse?
M: Is
there one thing that stands out when you look back on your childhood
here in Montreal?
WS: Montreal was my whole being until I graduated from
McGill. The Marcil gang. They were a group of kids on the block and
we hung out together. There was Guy, and Peanuts, and there was Betty,
who taught me more about sensuality by the time that I was 10 than any
woman-well, I’d better not make those comparisons. Let’s
just say she taught me a lot.
M: What
part of the city did you grow up in?
WS: NDG. Who else was in the gang? Well, that’s
enough. I also remember jumping out of second-storey windows into snowdrifts.
The sounds of screeching tires as my father tried to manoeuvre the car
up the driveway. The taste of bagels from the famous bagel shops. Playing
football for Westhill High School and winning the championships. McGill
freshmen and the awe of McGill.
M:
So you liked McGill?
WS: I never really went to school. I didn’t go
back to classes after my freshmen year. I would take notes from others
who went to class, but I was busy doing extracurricular things, doing
the theatre, the radio club, the musical review. I got my education
in the student union. My cousin played bridge in the student union and
his name was Shatner too. He was legendary until I came along. I couldn’t
match his bridge-playing ability.
Family ties
M: Was
there somewhere you always went in the summer?
WS: Ste-Agathe. We had a cottage from time to time
at Lake Long. There was all the skiing you could do. Mount Tremblant
as well. I skied for the team. I played football for McGill in my freshman
year but then I got caught up in the drama. I swam a lot, in the Laurentian
lakes. And I used to fish a lot with my father.
M: Do
you come back to Montreal a lot?
WS: I come back to Montreal quite a bit because my
two sisters are still there. We had a family meeting of all the people
who have the Shatner name in the area, and there were 185 people in
the Montreal area. My father had come from a family of 11 and my mother
had two brothers and a sister. So it was a huge extended family, all
living in Montreal. Some have moved to Toronto, but I think they’ve
since realized their mistake.
M: Some
have come back?
WS: I would have if I were them.
M: Is
there something you always try to do when you return?
WS: I walk around where I grew up. There’s a
lot of memories there. I walk the McGill campus. It’s changed.
The student union building is different.
M: What
did you think when the students renamed it the William Shatner Pavillion?
WS: I don’t think the students there realized
how important it was to me. The student union building was the core
of university life for me and my group. Or maybe they did realize it
and that’s why they renamed it after me.
Passion on tour
M: Would
you move back here?
WS: Montreal is arguably the most beautiful city in
the world. It’s also arguably one of the most passionate. The
beautiful women who walk down Sherbrooke or Ste-Catherine, and all the
cafés, all the streets that link Ste-Catherine and Sherbrooke
and the snow-swept slopes of Beaver Lake, where I learned to ski and
did summer theatre for three years. There was a summer theatre when
I was there. Eventually we took those shows on tour. Barry Morse and
Christopher Plummer, a whole host of people came through those doors.
Those are tremendous memories for me. Those hot summer nights, the crowds,
the victory-and very little agony.
M: You
obviously love it a lot. Could you see yourself moving back?
WS: I suppose it wouldn’t be the most far-fetched
thing. But my family is here, my daughters. This is really my home now.
Montreal is like the youth that was once and remember. It’s nostalgia.
M: Speaking
of nostalgia, you’ve warmed recently to the idea of revisiting
Capt. Kirk. Would you now?
WS: It would depend on what the script was. I write
these books that pertain to Kirk’s character, there have been
nine of them, so doing my Kirk bit and relating my own life to Kirk
goes on. What happens to me in my life is the basis for a lot of these
books.
M: Do
you watch the new Trek series Enterprise?
WS: No, I haven’t. Watching an hour-long TV show
isn’t something I do. I just don’t watch them. I know I’m
proven wrong by exceptions, but generally, knowing how episodic television
is made, it’s very hurried, and there are other things to watch
that I prefer on TV. News, movies, nature, realism, you know.
M: People
best remember you as Kirk, but I recall your roles in famous films like
The Intruder, Incubus and Judgment at Nuremberg. Do you have a favourite
film?
WS: Not really. The ones you mention are fun. What’s
of interest to me is what I’m doing or what’s coming up.
I’m doing 13 weeks on the sci-fi channel called Shatner’s
Horror Night. I host a bunch of fun horror films.
M: Are
they including Visiting Hours?
WS: What?
M: Visiting Hours. The horror movie you made.
WS: No, I don’t think so. No, it won’t
be. The other thing your readers might be interested in happens on Aug.
31, outside of Chicago, within airplane distance of Montreal. I’m
going to be running the largest paintball competition ever. For charity.
We expect 4,000 people to be fighting with paintballs. Since each slot
costs $100, we expect to raise lots of money. I do work for children’s
charities.
M: Have
you ever read any of the so-called slash fiction? The stuff that depicts
you and-well, the character of Kirk and Spock in sexual scenarios?
WS: Have I ever read it? Well, I’ve seen some
sketches. [Laughs] Now that’s science fiction!
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