William Shatner, 91, Reveals He’s Making A Documentary On His life For His Grandkids: ‘I Don’t Have Long To Live’
With the ‘final frontier’ looming, William Shatner’s finally making a documentary about his life as a way to ‘reach out’ to his family after he becomes one with the stars.
Captain James T. Kirk was not afraid to confront death while at the helm of the Enterprise, and at age 91, William Shatner — the actor who brought that iconic Star Trek character to life – is not afraid to admit that his time is coming to an end. However, he’s not done telling his story, which is why he’s finally making a documentary. When talking to Variety about the project – You Can Call Me Bill – Shatner shared that his family was the prime motivation behind this film. “I’ve turned down a lot of offers to do documentaries before,” he said. “But I don’t have long to live.
“Whether I keel over as I’m speaking to you or ten years from now, my time is limited, so that’s very much a factor. I’ve got grandchildren. This documentary is a way of reaching out after I die,” he added. “I have a grandson named Sebastian, who is 3 months old, and already he’s got a mischievous smile. He’s already a little bit of a comic. … You look into his eyes, and you can see the aspects of what he will be like. If hunger and disease and bad fortune don’t disturb him too much, he should become this wonderful, amusing human being.”
“So with the time I have left, I like to look at all my grandchildren and try to extract what I can out of my impressions,” he added. Publicly, the number of Shatner’s grandchildren isn’t clear. He shares three daughters with his first wife, Gloria Rand. In 2014, he told The Guardian that he had five grandchildren in total – “three girls and two boys” – but that number has clearly increased.
“At a family meeting with my three daughters, there are 13 of us,” he told The Guardian. “Being a grandparent is the greatest joy for me. I have the time now to grab a grandchild and talk, and hug and kiss them and make sure that I’m taking time to be with them and to give them some aspect of the things I’ve learned.”
Shatner also told Variety that this project just isn’t a recollection of his past or a cataloging of his experiences. “I’m trying to discover something I’ve never said before or to find a way to say something I’ve said before in a different way,” said Shatner, “so I can explore that truth further. I read all the time — newspapers and books. I’m feeding my mind. The sad thing is that the older a person gets, the wiser they become, and then they die with all that knowledge. And it’s gone. … 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 as they will my clothing, and it will all disappear.”