William Shatner is thinking a lot about death these days.
The “Star Trek” icon shared thoughts on his mortality and legacy ahead of the release of the biographical documentary “You Can Call Me Bill,” which focuses on his life and premieres Thursday at SXSW in Austin, Texas. After the death of former co-star Nichelle Nichols at age 89 in 2022, Shatner is one of three surviving cast members from the original show, the others being George Takei, 85, and Walter Koenig, 86.
“I turned down a lot of offers to do documentaries before,” Shatner, 91, said during an interview with Variety posted on Thursday. “But I don’t have long to live.”
He said he also considered his grandchildren in his decision to be in the film, calling it “a way to help after my death.”
Shatner is the grandfather of five children, all of his children by the first of his four wives, Canadian actress Gloria Rand. He previously said that being a grandfather is “the greatest joy for me.”
“Now I have time to grab a grandchild and talk and hug and kiss them and make sure I’m taking time to be with them and give them something of what I’ve learned,” he told The Guardian. in 2014.
He said his family life is “totally encompassing” and he sees his three daughters every weekend, according to The Guardian. They take trips during the holidays to ski and snorkel.
His youngest daughter, Melanie Shatner, Shatner recalled in a 2015 interview as “a wonderful, committed father” growing up, reminiscing about his traveling hours of hours to see them on the weekends or bringing them on set with him in the midst of a busy filming schedule.
“So with the time I have left, I like to look at all my grandchildren and try to glean what I can from my impressions,” Shatner said in the Variety interview.
When asked about his legacy, Shatner shared an anecdote about his controversial decision in 2015 to attend a Red Cross fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago instead of “Star Trek” co-star Leonard’s funeral. Nimoy.
“I told the audience, ‘People ask about a legacy. There is no legacy. The statues are toppled. The cemeteries are looted. The tombstones are torn down. Nobody remembers anybody. Who remembers Danny Kaye or Cary Grant? They were big stars. But they left and nobody cares,’” Shatner recalled.
“What lives are good works. If you do a good deed, it will have repercussions until the end of time. … That’s why I made this film.”
For the documentary, Shatner said he challenged himself to go beyond remembering the accolades of his career and worked to find a new way of looking at his life. One of the new shots of him: he can’t take anything with him to the grave.
“The sad thing is that the older a person gets, the wiser they get, and then they die with all that knowledge, and it’s gone,” she said. “Today there is a person going through some of my clothes to donate or sell them, because what am I going to do with all these outfits that I have? What am I going to do with all these thoughts? What am I going to do with 90 years of observations? The moths of extinction will eat my brain like they will my clothes and everything will disappear.
Even when asked why he was overcome with emotion after returning from his trip to space in Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, he said he was “in pain for this world.”
“I saw the Earth and its beauty and its destruction,” he said. “She is dying out. … We stupid fucking animals are destroying this beautiful thing called Earth. Doesn’t that make you angry? Don’t you want to do something about it?
In recent months, Shatner and Takei have made headlines for their public feud. In November, Takei called Shatner a “prima donna” that “none” of the “Star Trek” cast got along with.
Takei seemed to be responding to Shatner’s interview with the times uk in which he called his sci-fi co-stars “bitter” and said they continually criticize him “for publicity.”
“I started to understand that they were doing it for publicity,” Shatner said. “Sixty years after some incident, they are still on that path. Don’t you think that’s a bit weird? It is like a disease. George has never stopped blackening my name. These people are bitter and bitter. I have run out of patience with them. Why give credit to people consumed by envy and hate?
