George Takei calls out William Shatner for being insecure on the set of Star Trek, and Shatner hits back. I could act like I’m above enjoying this but I’d be lying.
Star Trek: The Original Series ended over 50 years ago, but there’s still time for a feud between two of its biggest stars. Honestly, in quarantine time, they’re kind of performing a public service.
The drama began when George Takei (Sulu) went on actor David Tennant’s podcast and talked about tensions on the set of the show, saying it sometimes felt like “William Shatner against the world.”
To hear Takei tell it, Shatner — who played Captain Kirk — was upset that Leonard Nimoy (Spock) received more fan mail than him. “There was one character whose charisma and whose mystery was like a magnet. It was Spock, the strange alien with pointy ears,” Takei said. “That intrigued the audience and women thought, ‘I’m the one who can arouse him.’ His fan letters were this many, and Leonard’s were that many, and that created an insecurity.”
"You know, movie-making, TV-making, theatre-making is all about collaborative teamwork. A good actor knows that the scene works when there’s that dynamic going on with the cast. Some actors seem to feel that it’s a one-man show. That’s the source of some tensions."
This isn’t the first time Takei has come for Shatner. Per Insider, Takei wrote in his 1994 autobiography To the Stars that, on set, Shatner would act like he didn’t know who Takei was, and even that Shatner once changed a script so Sulu wouldn’t take command of a starship. And when The Guardian asked Takei who would have over for a dream dinner party, he said, “My colleagues from Star Trek, with one exception.”
In other words, George Takei is out here throwing some major shade, and Shatner is happy to throw back on Twitter:
George needs a new hobby. Now he’s making things up. We never saw fan letters. 🤷🏼♂️ That’s why there’s so many secretary signed photos. We barely saw George. He was in once a week at most-how would he know anything? The only person with jealousy is George.🙄 https://t.co/Aq8vvHvVeG
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) August 25, 2020
The rolling eyes emoji at the end is my favorite part.
Is it unseemly for two men in their 80s to feud online like this? To me, the answer is clearly no. I’d like more of this, as often as possible. Like I said, we’re all craving distraction right now, and this is about the most palatable kind we’re going to get.
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