Why Does Star Trek's William Shatner's Kirk Talk Like That?

Ever since he moved into the public eye with "Star Trek" in 1966, famed /Film contributor William Shatner has gained a reputation for his "large" acting style. This reputation wasn't wholly earned, as Shatner rarely overacted on the original "Star Trek," usually playing Captain Kirk as buttoned-down, judicious, and in control. More recent depictions of Kirk (specifically, as he was portrayed in the J.J. Abrams "Star Trek" movies) have been incorrect, presenting him as a reckless cowboy and relentless horndog. While Kirk did get into his share of fistfights on "Star Trek" and snogged his share of pretty female guest stars, he wasn't ever careless or distractibly horny. Shatner's "overacting" reputation is extrapolated from only a few carefully selected moments throughout the series. 

As such, when someone does an impersonation of William Shatner, they. Tend. To. Say. Every. Word. As. If. It's. Its. Own. Sentence. Jim Carrey spoofed Shatner on "In Living Color" in this way, and Seth MacFarlane, on his animated show "Family Guy," even added strange physical contortions to Shatner's performance. Kevin Pollak, a master of impersonations, also did the "Every. Single. Sentence." shtick. For a Vanity Fair interview, Shatner was asked to watch and rate impersonations of himself, and his prevailing reaction was one of bafflement. Shatner knows that he didn't speak so ostentatiously, nor so haltingly, so why do so many comedians play him that way? For the record, Shatner rated MacFarlane's, Pollak's, and Carrey's impersonations quite low, although he does allow that those are comedic exaggerations. 

In other interviews, however, Shatner admitted that he does have a ... particular ... acting style, and one that can indeed be easily lampooned. It seems that some of the signature Shatner pauses were a result of the actor trying to infuse his character with an element of naturalness. Weirdly, some took Shatner's attempts at naturalness as a form of deliberate artificiality.

In 2003, William Shatner spoke with the AV Club, and the interviewer was tactful, asking Shatner if the pauses he sometimes inserted into Captain Kirk's dialogue on "Star Trek" were connected to the character's thoughtfulness and sense of wonder. Shatner responded positively to the question, saying: 

"Yes! I would think so. In fact, it was Shatner's awe and wonderment as to what the next line was, but it came out as Kirk's, as the character's hesitation in describing what it was he was going to say or do, because it was so exciting. It was so filled with the energy of what it was he was doing." 

In the same interview, Shatner said that every actor has their own personal cadence — he called it "music" — that no imitator could ever match. He also admitted to being guilty of doing bad imitations himself. He once had dinner with Edward G. Robinson, an actor he had once imitated for comedic effect. Robinson wondered why Shatner, and many others, said "mnyah mnyah, see?" in their impersonations of him. 

Shatner also explained a little bit more about his acting style on the DVD commentary track for "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," where he essentially said that an actor has to find a balance between nailing their lines and making them feel completely improvised. A real-life conversation, after all, isn't scripted. He admitted that taking multiple pauses throughout a scene was meant to make it look like Captain Kirk was thinking about what he was about to say. The actor summed it up like this: 

"There is a line between improvisation, and the necessity of saying the words that have been written. [The dialogue needs to go through] the progressions of what needs to be done for the story. On top of that, there is an application of something else, some other reality." 

Shatner is more or less defining acting. 

Shatner continued to define his craft on the "Voyage Home" commentary, saying that lines need to feel like they're escaping out of you. The dialogue, he said, needs to feel just as surprising to the characters as it does to the audience. Shatner's pauses and delivery are a means of achieving that. 

The actor developed his unique style while performing on stage as a young man, and one can see an element of live stagecraft leaking through in Shatner's on-screen performances. (He talked about developing the style in a 2016 interview with the New York Post.)

But Shatner wants it known that a lot of the famously halting speech he gave on "Star Trek" was reserved for Captain Kirk, a role he hasn't played (canonically) for years. In real life, Shatner doesn't speak that way. He speaks naturally and extemporaneously, just like we all do. An impersonation of Shatner should, in the best of circumstances, capture the actor's natural overconfidence, his willingness to take up a room, and, if we're honest, an occasional tendency to ramble. Shatner, 93, spoke recently at a "Star Trek" convention, and he was full of verve and energy, happy to be on the stage. He was delightfully confrontational with fans, demanding (playfully) that they ask him interesting questions. 

When someone asked Shatner what the next step of his career was going to be, the actor, without missing a beat, merely said, "To die!" He's 93, he explained, and there wasn't another act lurking ahead in his career. It wasn't a depressive observation, but comedically matter-of-fact. If one wants to do an accurate Shatner impersonation, start with that.