92-year-old William Shatner spoke candidly about his 70-year career in Hollywood, easily pinpointing his biggest regret during that span.
Shatner spoke to the Hollywood Reporter, explaining that the 1989 film “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,” was not only his biggest regret, but was also doomed from the start. In the film, Shatner reprises his role as Admiral James T. Kirk, who he had first played in the 1966 TV Series by Gene Roddenberry.
“I wish that I’d had the backing and the courage to do the things I felt I needed to do. My concept was, “‘Star Trek’ goes in search of God,” and management said, ‘Well, who’s God? We’ll alienate the nonbeliever, so, no, we can’t do God,’” he explained.
“And then somebody said, ‘What about an alien who thinks they’re God?’ Then it was a series of my inabilities to deal with the management and the budget,” he said of production of the film, which he directed as well as starring in. “I failed. In my mind, I failed horribly.”
“When I’m asked, ‘What do you regret the most?,’ I regret not being equipped emotionally to deal with a large motion picture. So in the absence of my power, the power vacuum filled with people that didn’t make the decisions I would’ve made,” he said.
At the time of its release, the film was criticized for its lack of execution, and just generally disappointing audiences, who had enjoyed “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,” just 3 years prior. Shatner noted that he takes all the blame, even if people question his budget or the support he had in hindsight.
“It is on me,” he reiterated, giving an example of mismanaging his $30 million budget. “[In the final scene] I wanted granite [rock creatures] to explode out of the mountain. The special effects guy said, ‘I can build you a suit that’s on fire and smoke comes out.’ I said, ‘Great, how much will that cost?’ They said, ‘$250,000 a suit.’ ‘Can you make 10 suits?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’”
“That’s $2.5 million. You’ve got a $30 million budget. You sure you want to spend [it on that]?” he remembered thinking. “Those are the practical decisions,” he said.
That sequence unfortunately, and infamously, had to be cut due to mechanical issues towards the end of filming.
However, despite the misstep, Shatner has remained successful throughout his career, both in front of and behind the camera.
“It’s luck. It’s the luck of being healthy,” he told Fox News in June of his longevity in the entertainment industry. “I think that’s the first thing… I’ve had things happen, but nothing debilitating over a period of time. So having the life force within me, is probably, mostly, what it’s all about.”
The post William Shatner Reveals That ‘Star Trek V: The Final Frontier’ Is His Biggest Regret In His Hollywood Career appeared first on Resist the Mainstream.
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Author: John Symank
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