The Wrath Of Khan director had a simple trick for dealing with William Shatner’s ego

When Nicholas Meyer was brought on to direct “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” he brought a necessary level of irreverence to the franchise. He had never seen an episode of the series, but immediately saw the potential to play out the conflict between the USS Enterprise, led by Captain James T. Kirk, and the USS Reliant, commanded by Khan Noonien Singh, as a major naval battle. Imbuing Gene Roddenberry with the seafaring spirit of a classic swashbuckler yarn like “Captain Blood” or “The Crimson Pirate” proved to be a series of masterstrokes – and, by all accounts, easier to pull off than getting a decent performance from Shatner.

To be honest, William Shatner is not a bad actor. He impressed his peers during his time at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada (one of them being Christopher Plummer), and was excellent in Roger Corman’s 1962 racially charged drama, “The Intruder.” But once he became a TV star thanks to “Star Trek,” he became a stiff, predictable performer. His histrionics seemed studied and performed as camp. Kirk was a fascinating character, mainly because of his raging ego and considerable (if edgy) intellect, but that stuff needed some shading.

Basically, Meyer needed to know if Shatner had a second note when playing Kirk. He did it. However, to achieve this, he had to be plunged into intense boredom.

During a panel discussion hosted by sci-fi writer-producer Marc Zicree (aka Mr. Sci-Fi), Meyer explained the key to getting real emotion from Shatner as Kirk wore him down. By Meyer:

“One of the things I discovered working with William Shatner on ‘Star Trek’ was that he always had these striking attitudes. He had picked up all these habits on Captain Kirk, and I thought, ‘How do I get out of this.’ I realized that if I addressed this head on, he would become very, very defensive…but I realized that he got better when he stopped doing that. How to stop him from doing that was to bore him with what he was doing. And when he got bored, he would let his guard down, and other things would come to the forefront because he wasn’t posturing. »

Shatner is phenomenal in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” particularly in his final scene with Spock and in the denouement with the team, where Kirk admits, “I feel young.” If this wonderful response emerges from the depths of boredom, then Shatner needs to be bored more often. Because he’s never been better in front of a camera.