Why Bill Shatner speaks the way he does

I found this video clip from Bruce Campbell. I thought it was well done. I never really noticed the stilted speech as much as when comedians do bits on Bill Shatner

 

That's because the comedians exaggerate it. Sometimes a person's reputation comes more from the parodies of that person than from the person themselves (e.g. Gerald Ford's reputation as a klutz coming from Saturday Night Live, when in reality he was quite the athlete). The comedians tend to cherrypick the few most extreme moments in Shatner's performances and present them as the default.

Honestly, I've never understood why people think Shatner's delivery is odd. It's normal for people to stumble and hesitate when they speak, or to have to pause mid-sentence to think of what they want to say next. Shatner doesn't just recite memorized lines, he makes it look like his character is making them up as he goes, which is more realistic.

And it's not like he's the only actor to do it, even in Star Trek. Scott Bakula's speaking style is far more pause-laden than Shatner's. Sometimes it's practically like the DMV scene in Zootopia waiting for him to get a whole line out.

 

Adam West/Batman said he would purposely speak his lines staccato style, similar to Shatner's delivery, in order to get more airtime for his face. It was pure ego trip.

 

In his one man show, "Shatner's World" he claims it is the result of groping for the line from his early days in theater.

 

Yes, in Friends, Joey calls that "smell the fart" acting.

 

Which, again, I don't see as a problem, because real people do have to pause to figure out what to say next. So it's more realistic than just flawlessly reciting memorized lines, and it's always puzzled me that people think it's something to make fun of.

 

Maybe because it's not what the majority of actors do, and so it stands out?

 

I guess it's a matter of perspective. People in real life don't speak in a way that could be perceived as being entertaining, otherwise why bother making movies? Just film random scenes on the street. One of my teachers spoke like a normal person, he was also less interesting than a reading of a phone book.

 

Yes, but I think it stands out as a positive aspect of his performance, because it's more naturalistic. So I don't understand why people see it as a negative.

Yes, of course, but that's the difference between realism and reality. Realism is still artifice, but it's designed in a way to feel relatively realistic while still being entertaining and artful.

And my point is that it's hardly unique to Shatner, so it's arbitrary that he gets singled out for it. I mean, most actors today favor a more naturalistic style than was common in the '60s. In fact, it was around the '60s that the standards of acting were starting to change and a more naturalistic performance style was beginning to catch on -- actors mumbling rather than enunciating clearly, talking over and interrupting each other, stammering and "uh"-ing, speaking more like regular people. Shatner's style is more in the theatrical tradition, but closer to the naturalistic side than usual for that tradition. It's a stylized version of naturalism.

Anyway, listen to Dwight Schultz's line readings sometime. I realized a long time ago that his acting style is virtually identical to Shatner's in its speech cadences and mannerisms, so much that I think he must've modeled himself on Shatner. Only Shatner is more subtle. Schultz's performances are extremely broad and hammy, very exaggerated. Shatner can get up to that level when he's not taking the work seriously enough, but Schultz is always at that level. So why aren't people mocking Schultz's style as much as Shatner's?

See, I don't think it's really about Shatner at all. I think it's about people wanting to be in on the joke. It's fashionable to make fun of Shatner, so people make fun of him even though he doesn't actually deserve to be singled out that way.

 

"Everybody else is doing it!"

And he apparently inspired a "tribute" of sorts...

 

I think that's the first (and probably only) time anyone has ever suggested that Shatner's stilted delivery is anything remotely realistic. In my life, I've never heard anyone speak that way. Maybe. It's a. Regional...thing.

 

I pause a lot b/c I just turned 50 and can't think of the next word...

 

One man's style is another man's bad acting.

 

Maybe the script writer's typewriter was defective and it accidentally added extra spaces and letters to Shatner's lines....

"I'mmmmmm......Cappppp....tainnnn.....Kirrrrrk!!!

 

We may laugh about him from time to time but let's face it you can't beat the Shat!
JB

 

You can beat Shatner if he tries to do his flying Kirk kick on you. You just wait until he falls on his butt and then you stomp him silly.

 

Perhaps Kirk has stage fright...or maybe he's trying to write his own lines, as it were.

 

Yeah but wouldn't that be taking advantage? Especially if he's just been stabbed by an Orion knife!
JB

 

Kirk should have studied more on how to apply a Vulcan Death Grip.

 

Well when he took the full effect of one it stayed on his face for the next three minutes and it wasn't even real!!!
JB