SXSW: William Shatner On His New Documentary, Turning 92, And Blasting Into Space Aboard Blue Origins: “I’m On National Television And I’m Uncontrollably Crying”
10.03.2023 - 20:23
/ deadline.com
To describe William Shatner, who turns 92 later this month, as “full of life” would be a gross understatement. When Deadline spoke with him about the documentary You Can Call Me Bill, which is making its world premiere at SXSW, he was about to go horseback riding. At a time when many people his age, those fortunate few to reach their 90s, are getting about with walkers or wheelchairs, he’s hoofing it.
“After this interview I’m gonna get on a horse,” he told us, with some astonishment. “I’m not going to get in a wheelchair. I’m gonna go on a reining horse and practice.”
He said he can’t quite believe the term “91-year-old” applies to him. “Every time I hear that figure I think, ‘That’s right. That’s me. My God,’” he laughed. “I think, how is that possible?”
The actor-author-singer (or perhaps “reciter of songs” is the more accurate term) knows the end of his life must be relatively near, given actuarial tables. He muses about mortality in the documentary directed by Alexandre O. Philippe, observing that to number among the billions of people who have lived and died means “the occasion of your death is meaningless.” Mostly, he focuses on the inexhaustible wonders of life and nature.
“Dogs speak to you, horses speak to you, trees,” he marvels in the film, noting that what has distinguished his life is taking care of his inner child – preserving a being filled with awe. “That curiosity is what keeps us alive,” he says. “I think curiosity is the fulfilled life.”
As if to prove the point, our conversation ranges from the origins of the term “mad hatter” (he recently learned it has to do with hat makers in the olden days handling mercury, which drove them insane), to the skies above.
“We’re surrounded by mysteries — the big